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ter disease, will occupy a much longer time than that of the
former.
This kind of caries sometimes advances so slowly in an
originally strong tooth, and extends itself so little on the sur-
face, that its progress may appear to be altogether arrested.
Entire suspension of the malady, however, is impossible,
as long as dead matter is allowed to remain in contact with
the living structure ; although it may proceed so very slowly
as to make its progress imperceptible for some time, it will,
however, in the event, never fail to become evident on the
accession of symptomatic inflammation* or of any other suf-
ficient cause of irritation.

Of the Symptoms of Simple Caries.*

The symptoms produced by simple caries, whether ex-
ternal or internal, depend upon the stage of the disease, and
on the general and local causes by which the disease is dis-
turbed and aggravated.
Caries, in its first stages, produces hardly any pain or in-
convenience ; it is generally in the latter period only of its
progress, when it has penetrated almost the whole side of a
tooth, and nearly reached its nerve, that the bony part of
the tooth becomes tender, and productive of some slight
uneasiness.
The inconvenience, however, is so trifling, that it is disre-
garded, unless when exasperated by some cause of general
or local irritation, which might produce symptomatic inflam-
mation in the bony structure, through the medium of the
lining membrane of the tooth. This state of more than ordi-

* Koecker, pages 227, 228.