Page 98 - My FlipBook

90
It is almost superfluous to mention that the temporary
teeth have as perfectly formed roots as the permanent, in-
deed as far as I recollect, Van Swieten is the only person
who at all doubted the fact.
Mr. Hunter ingeniously observes, * " that the first set of
teeth are pushed out by the second ; this, however is very-
far from being the case : and were it so, it would be attend-
for were a tooth
ed with a very obvious inconvenience ;
pushed out by one underneath, that tooth must rise in pro-
portion to the growth of the succeeding one, and stand in
the same proportion above the rest." Mr. Hunter, however,
does not seem to be acquainted with the writings of the
very accurate Albinus ; if he were, he would be induced to
give a very different description of what takes place, with
respect to the wasting of the roots of the temporary teeth
and the appearance of the permanent, as will appear from
the following quotations. Mr. Hunter says, f " it would be
very natural to suppose that this wasting was owing to a
constant pressure from the rising teeth against the fangs or
sockets of the first set : but it is not so, for the new alveoli
rise with the new teeth, and the old alveoli decay in propor-
tion as the fangs of the old teeth decay, and when the first
set falls out, the succeeding teeth are so far from having de-
stroyed, by their pressure, the parts against which they
might be supposed to push, that they are still enclosed, and
covered by a complete bony socket. From this we see that
the change is not produced by a mechanical pressure, but is
a particular process in the animal economy." And page
100 he makes use of the following words, " when the in-
cisores and cuspidati of the new set are a little advanced, but
long before they appear through their bony sockets, there

* Nat. Hist, page 98. t Nat. Hist, pages 98 and 99.