The pathology of dental caries / by C. Spence Bate.

  • Bate, C. Spence.
Date:
1864
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The pathology of dental caries / by C. Spence Bate. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    47/100 (page 43)
    of healthy and mercurial saliva will demonstrate this to be true, as well as the fact of the general absence of tartar in this character of saliva :— nEALTHY SALIVA. Water 991*225 Solid matter 8*775 Fat containing chloste- rine 0*525 MERCURIAL SALIVA. Water :.... 974*12 Solid matter 25*88 Viscid yellow adipose mat- ter 6*74 Ptyaline and extractive matter 4*375 Ptyaline, with traces of caseine 3*65 Extractive matter and salt 2*450 Albumen, mucus and cells 1*400 Alcoholic extract and salt 7* 55 Albumen 7'77 The increase of albumen and fatty matter in the unhealthy saliva is very considerable, and these substances probably lodge in and about the crevices and interstices of teeth, and there decompose. I am inclined to believe that the decomposition of the cementum on the extremities of the im- perfectly-developed enamel fibres is the more constant, inasmuch as the birth (so to speak) of the new agent takes place in juxtaposition with the salt it dissolves. Warmth is well known to stimulate decompo- sition of animal substances ; it is therefore an active secondary agent in the production of C 02. It is under these circumstances we see how commonly cooks and inhabitants of hot kitchens rapidly lose their teeth, as well as account in some measure for the fact that the teeth decay more rapidly in the posterior region of the mouth than in the anterior.