Page 781 - My FlipBook

APPENDIX.

FERMENTATION IN THE HUMAN MOUTH:

ITS RELATION TO CARIES OF THE TEETH.
THE INFLUENCE OF ANTISEPTICS, FILLING MATERIALS, ETC.,
UPON THE FUNGI OF DENTAL CAEIES.

THE FUNGI OF DENTAL CAEIES; THEIR PURE CULTIVATION AND
EFFECT UPON LOWER ANIMALS.

BIOLOGICAL STUDIES ON THE FUNGI OF THE HUMAN MOUTH.

By De. W. D. miller, Berlin, Gebmany. ^

During the last two years I have stated at diiferent times and places,
as the result of many experiments, that " the first stage of dental caries
consists in a decalcification of the tissue of the teeth by acids which are
for the greater part generated in the mouth by fermentation." The
object of the investigations described in this and the following papers is
to determine this ferment and the conditions essential to its action. I
shall seek in wliat follows to present no views which are not the legiti-
mate and necessary results of rigid and exact experiment, and I shall
give in detail a description of each series of experiments, in order that
every one may have an opportunity to judge of the accuracy of the
work and the justice of the conclusions drawn from it.
It is, nevertheless, with some hesitancy that I venture to present
before the dental profession the results of my last six months' labor,
having learned by experience the almost endless number of agents
which combine to vitiate such a series of experiments as that wiiich
I am about to offer, and the exceeding great care which is necessarv
in excluding or eliminating all irrelevant factors. If, therefore, I have
been guilty of any oversight or failed to take all possible precautions to
guard against error, I hope that some one will kindly show me where
I have gone astray and put me in the right course again.
The larger apparatus necessary for these experiments are
:
^Reprinted from the Independent. Practitioner, February, March, and May, 1884, and
May and June, 1885.
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