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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![nerves, united by a pulpy or cellular substance. The vessels are branches of the superior and inferior raaxillaries, and the nerves must come from the second and third branches of the fifth pair. By injections we can trace the blood-vessels distinctly through the whole cavity of the tooth ; but I could never trace the nerves distinctly even to the beginning of the cavity. Of the Periosteum of the Teeth. The teeth, as we have observed, are covered by an enamel only at their bodies; but at their fangs they have a periosteum, which, though very thin, is vascular, and appears to be common to the tooth which it in- closes, and the socket, which it lines as an investing internal membrane. It covers the tooth a little beyond the bony socket, and is there attached to the guma. Of the Situation of the Teeth. The general shape and situation of the teeth are obvious. The op- position of those of the two jaws, and the circle which each row de- scribes, need not be particularly explained, as they may be very well seen in the living body, and may be supposed to be already understood from what has been said of the alveolar processes. We may just observe, with regard to the situation of the two rows, that when they are in the most natural state of contact, the teeth of the upper jaw project a little beyond the lower teeth, even at the sides of the jaws, but still more remarkably at the fore part, where, in most people, the upper teeth lie before those of the lower jaw*; and at the lateral part of each row the line or surface of contact is hollow from behind forwards in the lower jaw, and in the same proportion it is convex in the upper jawf. The edge of each row is single at the fore part of the jaws ; but as the teeth grow thicker backwards, it there splits into an internal and ex- * PI. II. f. 1, 2. f Ibid. a [The periosteum can hardly be said to be common to the tooth and the socket. It is, in fact, continued from the external surface of the alveolar process into the socket, and then reflected over the surface of the root. Thus, if a healthy tooth be removed from a dead body, it will be found covered with an extremely thin periosteum, and the alveolar cavity will also often remain lined by a similar structure. Probably when inflammation has once existed to a considerable degree in this membrane, the two layers become permanently united.]](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21996635_0002_0040.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
