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64 PATHOLOGY OF THE HAKD TISSUES OF THE TEETH.
was there any provision for processes of repair of injuries. Yet
the dentin was a vital tissue and it was the opinion of Mr. Tomes
that this vitality must be destroyed before the part could be
dissolved out by an acid, thus forming a cavity. He admitted,
however, that the same agent — an acid — might do both. This
gave rise to the chemico-vital theory of dental caries, which was
much discussed from 1840 to 1880.
Finally Dr. Magitot of Paris (English translation, 1878)
published the most extensive work that has been produced on
this subject, detailing much experimentation in various ways
in the endeavor to determine the exact cause of the disease. His
conclusions were that caries of the teeth was produced purely by
chemical substances developed in the mouth or introduced with
food. This work seemed, for the time being, to establish the
purely chemical theory of the production of dental caries.
In the meantime, there had been many suggestions that
microorganisms might be found to play a prominent part in the
production of dental caries. The first important work published
on this subject was by Leber and Eottenstein (German 1867 —
English translation, 1868) in which these authors claimed to
have determined the presence of these fungi in the dentinal
tubules (which were much enlarged) of carious areas. Strong
corroborative evidence of the correctness of their view existed
in the fact that John Tomes had determined previously that the
tubules in carious areas were constantly much enlarged and
filled with granules, the nature of which he could not determine.
This observation by Mr. Tomes had been confirmed by the obser-
vation of others and had become fixed as an essential difference
between dental caries and a simple solution of the calcium salts
of a tooth by an acid. Still, the work yf Leber and Eottenstein
made no considerable impression on the opinions held by den-
tists. These gentlemen wrote before the development of the
staining methods by anilin dyes, which certainly distinguish
microorganisms in tissues. Neither were they able, by means
of culture methods then known, to separate microorganisms into
distinct species and determine the character of each as to its
power of producing fermentation or other special forms of
decomposition.
Miles and Underwood of London (1881) determined defi-
nitely that the enlarged tubules in dental caries contained micro-
organisms, by use of the anilin dyes discovered by Dr. Koch,
the German bacteriologist, but they were unable to go farther
for the lack of better facilities for division of species of micro-