Page 57 - Craventreatiseonpyorrh00crav

SALIVARY CALCULUS 47 ; noyed with accumulation of tartar upon their teeth ; but if the lime salts are deposited in certain other parts, tissue or organ, such as the bladder or lungs, the blessing of immunity from salivary calculus may be a doubtful one at best. Physiologists tell us that the phosphate and carbonate of lime are to be found in all the tissues of the body ; that they are in solution in the water of the body by virtue of carbonic acid. Quotations given in this chapter show that there is enough carbonic acid in the blood alone to enable it to hold double the necessary quantity of these salts ; that there is nearly always an excess of lime salts in the water of saturation and circulation ; therefore, that the saliva should be surcharged with these salts is a normal and healthful state, and should be anticipated and appreciated. That certain effects are produced in the alimentary canal by the salts of lime after they are precipitated in the mouth and swallowed with food, the following would appear to indicate " In ordinary food there is more of the phosphates than the system has need of, so that they are constantly escaping with the stools." [See "Wood and Bache's U. S. Dispensatory, 1876.] There is abundant evidence to show that the salts of lime really temper the feces in the intestine, the phosphate acting as a mild laxative and the carbonate checking tendency to diarrhea or too free discharges. After all then, the precipitation of lime salts from saliva in the mouth is evidently physiological and therefore desirable. Probably the only unnatural and pernicious aspect of such