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on edge, and which is felt very sensibly by the incisor and
canine teeth, when the hand is passed on the body of a hat, or
on other similar bodies, or when certain instruments are heard
clashing against each other at a certain distance ; but as these
are things for which the aid of the dentist is not commonly
wanted, and the explanations also that have been given on
this subject, appear to me very uncertain, I like better to
spare the reader the trouble of reading parallel conjectures^
and confine myself to the limits my profession prescribes
me."
Mr. Robert Blake, who examined the various phenomena
of healthy and diseased, and of living and dead teeth, was
a warm advocate in favour of the position, that both in their
osseous and vascular portions, the teeth are truly organized
bodies, and possessed of sensibility. He was also strongly
opposed to Mr. Hunter's views of this subject, and remarks :
" Having repeatedly injected and examined the jaws of
young subjects, I observed blood-vessels passing from the
gum to the membranes destined to form the cortex striatus.
It was natural enough, then, to conclude, that, as the invest-
ing membranes were derived from the gum, their nourish-
ment too, did originate from the same source, and that the
use of the vessels which entered the proper foramina of the
jaws, was only to form the pulp and bony part of the tooth.
Further consideration of the subject, however, urged me to
it would by no means hold good on
relinquish this opinion :
comparing it with what takes place in the jaws of large ani-
mals, for (as mentioned in chapter eight, page 83) the cortex
striatus continues to be formed on the external plates of

• Blake, Essay on the Teeth in Man, pages 117 to 122.