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268 THIRD PERIOD—MODERN TIMES
The author divides maladies of the dental apparatus into three classes,
that is:
1. Maladies deriving from external causes and acting, therefore, espe-
cially on the crown or uncovered part of the tooth.
2. Maladies of the hidden parts of the tooth, that is, of the neck and
root.
3. Symptomatic maladies, deriving from the teeth.
In the first class the author includes 45 pathological states, 17 in the
second and 41 in the third, making up a total of 103 morbid conditions.
This should be sufficient to give us an idea of the accuracy with which
Fauchard studied the maladies of the dental apparatus, especially if one
considers that preceding authors had reduced these maladies to a very
small number. Fauchard's classification is very complete, for not-
withstanding the progress made in succeeding years in this science, the
pathological conditions not to be found comprised in it are exceedingly
few. Naturally, the 103 diseases enumerated by Fauchard do not repre-
sent as many distinct morbid entities. The author, in classifying dental
maladies, keeps especially in view the requirements of the practitioner,
and therefore makes numerous distinctions in each morbid process.
Thus, he distinguishes a great many varieties of caries, viz., the soft and
putrid caries, the dry caries, the caries in part dry and in part soft, the
caries complicated by fracture, the superficial caries, the deeper and the
deepest, the caries of the different surfaces of the crown, and so on.
Also in the classification of other morbid processes, Fauchard makes
multifarious distinctions.
The passage referring to worms in the teeth deserves to be here
reproduced:^
"
Sometimes worms are to be found in the carious cavities of the teeth,
or in the deposit of tartar that covers them, and to these the name of dental
worms has been given. Observations recorded by illustrious authors
are extant which attest this. Not having ever seen these worms, I neithet
admit nor deny their existence. Nevertheless, I conceive the thing nor
to be physically impossible, although at the same time I do not believe
at all that these worms destroy the teeth or cause them to decay, but rather
that the eggs of some insect having been introduced into the carious cavity
of the tooth, either through alimentary substances or through the saliva,
these eggs thus deposited have developed and produced the worms
alluded to. However this may be, as they are not the real cause of the
caries, their eventual presence does not require any particular considera-
tion." Fauchard again recurs to the subject of worms in Chapter VIII,
in speaking of the particular causes of caries."

' Vol. i, p. 131. 2 Page 142.