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gether upon their membrane, and if the life of this mem-
brane be destroyed, the tooth will become not only extrane-
ous, but a noxious body."
" Notwithstanding, therefore, that the teeth consist of the
hardest and most solid bony texture, they are, nevertheless,
organized, vascular, and interwoven with nervous and arte-
rial fibres."
Mr. Hunter, from not having an intimate and practical ac-
quaintance with the dental organs, and from several consid-
erations which I will presently give in his own words, came
to a conclusion, that in their osseous structure the teeth pos-
sessed neither circulation nor sensibility, and even that they
were bodies almost " extraneous" to the system. He says,*
" the following considerations would seem to show that the
teeth are not vascular. First, I never saw them injected in
any preparation, nor could I ever succeed in any attempt to
inject them, either in young or old subjects ; and therefore
believe that there must have been some fallacy in the cases
where they have been said to be injected. Secondly, we are
not able to trace any vessels going from the pulp into the
substance of the new formed tooth ; and whatever part of a
tooth is formed, it is always completely formed ; which is
not the case with other bones. But what is a more convin-
cing proof, is, reasoning from the analogy between them and
other bones, when the animal has been fed with madder.
Take a young animal, viz. a pig, and feed it with madder
for three or four weeks, then kill the animal, and, upon ex-
amination, you will find the following appearance : first, if
this animal had some parts of its teeth formed before the
feeding with madder, those parts will be known by their re-
maining of this natural colour ; but such parts of the teeth

Hunter, Natural History of the Human Teeth, pages 37 to 39,