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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    The formative surface of the pulp displays a regular cellular arrangement, which I have deno- minated reticular, and which may be described as resembling a series of skeletons of desiccated leaves. (See [PL C. 7], Pulp No. 6 A. and B.) It is not easy to obtain a preparation where the appearance is so perfect as to allow of a clear sketch of the consecutive parts of it being taken. The drawing I now present to your notice is the most perfect I have been able to obtain, and is from the tooth of a calf. The compartments of the reticulation are seen to be oval, and overlap one another. On in- sulating one of these compartments or leaves, (see [PL C. 7], Pulp No. 6, B,) we find that its structure is curious and regular. These beautiful reticula- tions have peculiar diversities in different animals. I first observed them in the human pulp, and soon found them in all other animals which I had an op- portunity of examining, varying, as I have said, in size and arrangement in different cases. I next extended my observations to the capsule, and to the capsular investment of the enamel, and found in classes of animals? What is the precise degree of importance of the reticular cellular organization observed on the surface of the pulp with regard to the process of transition, besides the fact that it presents cells into which the earth is deposited ? Do these reticular cells form a system containing circulating fluids, from which the osseous material of the tooth is elimi- nated ? How are these cells connected together, both in their transition state and in the pulp, as well as when they have passed into the state of ivory ? These, and many other similar questions, remain to be solved before our comprehension of the process of the formation of ivory can be said to be complete.