Page 31 - My FlipBook

SYSTEM OF DENTAL SURGERY.

CHAPTER I.

Assimilation is a term, which, when applied to the animal
system, implies series of phenomena, by which the food is
rendered subservient to the purposes of nutrition. The first
of these, the comminution of the food is performed by a set
of organs, that in man, not only enable him to masticate his
food, but assist in the articulation of language, determine to
some extent the expression of his features, and add dignity
and beauty to his countenance. I need not for one moment
detain the reader by enlarging upon the utility of these or-
gans, or their influence upon the -health of the animal, but
merely remark that nearly all animals that subsist upon solid
food, are provided with an apparatus for reducing and divid-
ing it into small pieces, whereby it is rendered capable of
being readily acted on by the digestive powers of the sto-
mach. The maxillary bones with those muscles which give
them motion, the teeth arid their appendages, the alveoli, and
gums, constitute the masticatory apparatus. The object of
the present work, is to convey in a manner as clear and con-
cise as possible, the Anatomy, Natural History, and Dis-
eases of these organs. The effect of their diseases upon the
general system, the means of preventing and curing those
diseases, and a description of the mode by which some part
of these organs may be substituted when lost, and to give a
detailed account of tie various articles of the materia med-
ica used by the surgeon dentist.
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