Page 740 - My FlipBook

750 DENTAL CARIES.

which he has experimented—and in a large number of them fermenta-
tion has produced the acid which has decalcified the teeth experimented
— yet he nowhere puts prominently
upon, which fact he particularly notes
forward the thought that these agents are formed in contact with the
identical points at which caries is manifested. It is true that fermenta-
tion taking place within the mouth is many times alluded to, and the
agency of micro-organisms in the process is also admitted ; still, but
slight importance is attached to them.
Continuino-, Magitot says :^
"Other secondary phenomena are sometimes produced concurrently
about the altered parts, and have by various observers been held to a cer-
tain degree responsible. It is thus that putrid decompositions, which have
especially for their source debris of animal or vegetable substances of ali-
mentation, have been invoked ; in like manner the cryptogams and vibrios,
whose formation we have regarded as an epiphenomenon of the malady,
have been considered as agents of the alteration by Facinus, thus taking
precedence of the theories of Pasteur."
It seems to have been Dr. Magitot's thought that the agents that
produce caries are either developed in the fluids of the mouth, and
evolved with them as they are secreted, or else are introduced from
without, rather than formed in isolated points of fermentation. In his
search for these agencies all the varying conditions of the fluids of the
mouth in health and disease have been questioned. That in such
agencies are to be found some of the predisposing causes of the malady
there seems no reasonable doubt ; but certainly, after all the fruitless
search of the last half century, it is time to turn our attention else-
where. I would here reiterate the proposition that if the cause of
caries of the teeth is to be found in the disintegration of their structure
by an acid or by acids, we must find that these agents are produced or
applied at the very spot where the caries has its beginnings or is making
its advances. Otherwise we must fail. Caries of the teeth is, as a mal-
ady, strictly localized, and is not the product of any agent distributed
generally in the oral fluids.
There are many other authors, such as Weld, Salter, Coleman, Taft,
and others, who have written well on this subject, and from whom we
might quote ; but in doing so only slight shades of difference in the
views presented would be obtained, without in any wise affecting the
ti-end of thought already given ; it is, therefore, unnecessary to our
present purpose.

Agency of Micro-organisms in Caries.
In the jirevious pages considerations have been presented which lead
to the conclusion that caries of the teeth is a result of the corrosive action
of acids developed in contact with them. Certain observations of the
utmost importance in the further explanation of these processes are now
to be noticed. They relate to the agency of those micro-organisms con-
cerned in the various fermentative processes by which acids are produced.
' P. 164.