Volume 2

The works of John Hunter.

Date:
1837
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The works of John Hunter. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    The alveolar processes of both jaws should rather be considered as belonging to the teeth than as parts of the jaws; for they begin to be formed with the teeth, keep pace with them in their growth, and decay and entirely disappear when the teeth fall out; so that if we had no teeth, it is likely we should not only have no sockets, but not even these pro- cesses in which the sockets are formed; for the jaws can perform their motions, and give origin to muscles, without either the teeth or alveolar processes. In short, there is such a mutual dependence of the teeth and alveolar processes on each other, that the destruction of the one seems to be always attended with that of the othera. In the head of a young subject which I examined, I found that the two first incisor teeth in the upper jaw had not cut the gum, nor had they any root or fang, excepting so much as was necessary to fasten them to the gum, on their upper surface ; and on examining the jaw, I found there was no alveolar process nor sockets in that part. What had been the cause of this I will not pretend to say; whether it was owing to the teeth forming not in the jaw but in the gum, or to the wasting of the fangs. The appearance of the tooth favoured the first supposition, for it was not like those whose fangs are decayed in young subjects, preparatory to the shedding of the teeth ; and as it did not cut the gum, it is reasonable to think it never had any fang. That end from which the fang should have grown was formed into two round and smooth points, having each a small hole leading into the body of the tooth, which was pretty well formed. ' Of the Articulation of the Lower Jaw. Just under the beginning of the zygomatic process of each temporal bone, before the external meatus auditorius, an oblong cavity may be observed, in direction, length, and breadth in some measure corre- sponding with the condyle of the lower jaw*. Before and adjoining to this cavity, there is an oblong eminence, placed in the same direc- tion, convex upon the top, in the direction of its shorter axis, which runs from behind forwards; and a little concave in the direction of its longer axis, which runs from within outwards. It is a little broader at * PI. I. f. 3. c. a [This observation is strictly correct: however rapidly the gum becomes absorbed, whether from indigestion, the use of mercury, the accumulation of calculous matter, or that affection which is vulgarly termed scurvy in the gum, the alveolar process never becomes exposed (unless it be a dead portion exfoliating), but absorption of the bone always keeps pace with that of the gum.]