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THE SEFENTEENTH CENTURV 239

Du\ci"ne\' hnds much anal()t;\' between the tusks of the ele|)liant, the
teeth, proper!}' so called, the feathers of birds, and the hair of iiiammifera.'
Gottfried Bidloo, a Dutch anatomist, expresses the idea that the
air contributes, after the eruption of the teeth, to hardening them. He
did not, however, give an\' proof of this opinion of his.-
Clofton Havkrs, an Englishman, wrote a book on osteology, b\- \\ hich
he acquired great reputation, ' and in which he treats as well of teeth
and their structure. This author believes the enamel of the teeth to
be of the nature of stone, and the ivor\ of the nature of bone. The
dental roots, which, he says, are precisely of a bon\- nature, arc covered
over with a periosteum, which is in close relation with the gums and w ith
the periosteum of the jaw^ bone. Clopton Havers held that the dental
follicle no longer furnishes any nourishment to the enamel from the
moment that this has reached its perfect formation. On the other hand,
he assures his readers that he has observed, through the microscope,
nervous threads w^hich, departing from the bulb of the tooth, traverse the
ivor\' through small canals, arriving thus at the periosteum. \l\ this
anatomical disposition the sensibilit\- of the teeth ma\', according to him,
be explained.^
Having made this passing allusion to the anatomy of the teeth in the
seventeenth century, we will now resume the illustration of those facts
relating to the pathological and curative part of the science.
Walter Harris, an Englishman, in a pamphlet on acute infantile
maladies," recommends again, in cases of difficult dentition, the incision
of the gums, a curative practice wdiich had alread\' fallen into disuse."
In the authors of that time we find registered a great number of cases
of epulis. HiOB Van Meekren speaks of an enormous tumor of the
gum that developed in consequence of a traumatic action which had
occasioned the loss of a tooth. Before deciding on the extirpation of the
tumor, the author thought well to pierce it with a bistourv, to be able to
judge whether its ablation might not possibh' give rise to a dangerous
hemorrhage. The wound having bled but little, he proceeded to operate;
but the tumor was so large that it was necessary to remove it in \arious
portions.'
The same author refers to a case of a soft epulis, bleeding easilw that

' Blandin, op cir.; Portal, vol. - Blandin, p. 31.
iii, p. 495.
•^On Some New Observations of the Bones and the Parts Belonging to Them, London,
i6qi. The accurate description given by Havers of the canal.s containing the nourishing
vessels of the bone has caused these canals to be known, even up to the present day, by the
name of "Haversian canals."
'"
* Portal, vol. iv, p. 134; Blandin, p. 31. De morbis acutis infantum, London, i68q.
ii, p. 298.
* Sprengel, Geschichte der Chirurgie, vol.
7 Meekren, Observationes medico-chirurgic;e, cap. xv, p. 84.