Three memoirs on the developement and structure of the teeth and epithelium, read at the ninth annual meeting of the British Association for the Encouragement of Science, held at Birmingham in August, 1839 / by Alexander Nasmyth.
- Date:
- 1841
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Three memoirs on the developement and structure of the teeth and epithelium, read at the ninth annual meeting of the British Association for the Encouragement of Science, held at Birmingham in August, 1839 / by Alexander Nasmyth. 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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![moved by acid, but where the cells still retain their position, general appearance, and connexion with each other. Diagram No. 2, represents a more advanced stage of decomposition, where there seem to be attached to each fibre minute lateral filaments, which I presume to be the remaining portions of the emptied cells. Diagrams No. 3, and No. 4, depict the appear- ances presented when decomposition has so far advanced as to have rendered the fibre interrupted or baccated. No. 3, represents the fibre of a human tooth, and No. 4, that of the elephant in this state. It may be useful to compare these cells in No. 1, after they have been deprived of their earthy con- tents, with their state previous to the reception of the earthy matter as delineated in pulp No. 6, A. &c. [PI. C. 7 and 8.] In the reticulations they are collapsed, lying one above another, but after having been deprived of earth, they will be observed to be rigid, and to retain the erect distended form which they acquired by the deposition within them of ossific matter.*] * To indicate the true theory of the formation of ivory, nothing more is required than the display of these appearances. No “ ex- creted” or “ exuded” substance can possibly present an animal tissue arranged in regular connected cells. It is quite evident that these cells, whilst receiving a supply of earthy matter during the process of transition, must remain in connection with, and in- deed continue to form part of, the pulp. It would be absurd to suppose that a regularly cellular structure can be “excreted C](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21982910_0055.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
