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
Catalogue details

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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    with which the pulp diminishes in volume, and with the extent of this diminution. Sometimes, indeed, it would appear in a short space of time to be almost annihilated, and this seems to take place more decidedly when the tooth has been in a healthy state, and more frequently in adult than in temporary teeth. This shrinking, or almost total disappearance, may, I think, be accounted for by a peculiar collapse or change in the con- geries of cells of which we find the pulp to be made up. The use of this peculiar arrangement, and the purpose which it serves in the economy of the part, will furnish curious subjects for future inquiry. A subject also highly worthy of inves- tigation is the nature of the contents of these cells. They must evidently be filled either with air or fluid, but they are so extremely minute that I have not yet been able to ascertain which. After repeated and careful investigation, I have convinced myself that they constantly exist on the surface of the pulp which is in apposition to the ivory, and which is essentially concerned in its developement. [By comparing, however, the diagram, Pulp No. 4, with Pulp No. 6 B, it will be seen that these vesicles are present on the surface of the pulp in a modified, more regular, and more dis- tinctly cellular form than in its interior : and with this additional difference, that throughout the sub- stance of the pulp they present ill-defined layers, whereas, at its surface, they are arranged in reti- cular leaflets, to be hereafter described.]