Substance of a lecture on the functions of the mouth, and the structure of recent and fossil teeth / [Alexander Nasmyth].

  • Alexander Nasmyth
Date:
[1840]
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Substance of a lecture on the functions of the mouth, and the structure of recent and fossil teeth / [Alexander Nasmyth]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    cavities in which they are formed.” I think, Sir, that your readers also, after com¬ paring these passages, will be somewhat inclined to suspect that Mr. Owen must have had, at any rate, a slight acquaintance with Schwann’s researches before the spring of the present year. I think, Mr. Editor, I have succeeded in proving, that in my papers, the teeth were represented as organised, and as being formed by an ossific transformation of the pulp; and that, therefore, Mr. Owen’s omit¬ ting at first to recognise this fact, in order that he might publish the theory based on these views as a new one of his own, was as unjustifiable as his recent attempts to show that these views were borrowed from him, must necessarily be puerile and fruit¬ less. I have also shown, that my observa¬ tions on the unossified pulp are so similar to his as to have required, at any rate, a notice in the “ Comptes Rendus,” where he applies all the researches communicated, to the establishment of a new theory of den¬ tal formation,—that the identity of the fibres of the ivory with a part of the structure of the pulp was announced by me before it was published by him ; and that, with re¬ spect to the “ deposition” or “ arrange¬ ment” of the ossific matter in the cells of the pulp, he has but made the same state¬ ment that I had previously published. I should be glad to enter still further into detail on this subject, and show the full scope of the papers, drawings, and dia¬ grams, which I submitted to the British Association, and which, of course, are but inadequately reported in the weekly jour¬ nals of the time; but I feel that this is not the place so to do, nor can I expect, after having trespassed so long on your in¬ dulgence, that you should grant me more space. Indeed for my own sake, I regret much that Mr. Owen’s conduct should have forced me into this discussion, which has occupied time and attention that it would have been much more useful and agreeable for me to have devoted to other pursuits.* I am, Sir, Your obedient Servant, ALEX. NASMYTH. London, July 2, 1840. * The concluding paragraph and the sig¬ nature of the above letter, together with a few trivial corrections, were sent to the printing office too late in the week to be inserted in The Lancet. Printed by W. Taylor, 49, Essex-street, Strand.
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