Page 800 - My FlipBook

810 DENTAL CARIES. —
These tubes now being placed in the incubator, their contents became
cloudy one after the other. In those tubes which contained fillings of
but slight antiseptic power the development of the fungi proceeded
rapidly and the cloudiness soon appeared ; if, on the other hand, the
filling was strongly antiseptic, the development of the fungi was hin-
dered and the cloudiness appeared later. The first tube to which the
sublimate solution had been added of course remained clear, and by
comparing the others with this it was easy to see just when the turbidity
began to show itself; the second tube, containing no antiseptic and no
filling, served as control, and the space that intervened alter the control
became turbid till any one of the other tubes became turbid was a meas-
ure of the antiseptic power of the material in that tube.
As the result of a great number of experiments, I have been able to
get together the following table.
When the control tube becomes turbid in five hours, then
A tube containing an old oxyphosphate filling becomes turbid in 5 hours.
" " ''
an old oxychloride filling becomes turbid in 5
" " "
a gold cylinder becomes turbid in 5
" " "
a Hill's stopping cylinder becomes turbid in 5
" "
an amalgam cylinder (kept twelve hours in saliva) becomes
"
turbid in b\
" "
an agate cylinder (kept twelve hours in saliva) becomes
"
turbid in b\
" " "
an old amalgam filling becomes turbid in b^^
" " "
an amalgam cylinder (mixed dry) becomes turbid in . . 5|
" " "
an amalgam cylinder (mixed wet) becomes turbid in . . Sj
" " an oxy.pliosphate cylinder (twelve hours in saliva) becomes
turbid in . / 5^ "
" "
an amalgam cylinder (twelve hours old) becomes tui'bid
i"-.- •': ^ "
.•
" " an old filling ot tin and gold becomes turbid in .... "
;
" " 5f
an oxyphosphate cylinder (twelve hours old) becomes
turbid in . ' 6 "
" "
an agate cylinder (twelve hours old) becomes turbid in . 6| "
" '*
an iodoform cement cylinder (twelve hours in saliva)
becomes turbid in "
6f
" " a pyrophosphate cylinder (mixed dry) becomes turbid in 7\ "
" " a pyroplifjspluite cylinder (mixed wet) becomes turbid in 7| "
" " an oxychloride cylinder (twelve hours old) becomes tur-
bid in 9 "
" "
a piece of dentine from a tooth impregnated by a cojiper
amalgam filling becomes turbid in 11 "
" "
an iodoform cement cylinder (twelve hours old) becomes
turbid in 12 *'
" "
an iodolbrm cement cylinder (fresh) becomes turbid in . ? "
" " —
a globule of mercury becomes turbid in
" " a cylinder of black oxide of mercury becomes turbid in —
.
" " a cylinder of any copper amalgam becomes turbid in —
.
" " . —
- any old copper amalgam filling becomes turbid in . .
" " . —
a cylinder of oxychloride (fresh) becomes turbid in .
The — ) signifies that the solution remained permanently clear.
(
We see from these results that the only filling at present in use which
exerts a continual antiferment^ action upon the walls of the tooth and
its immediate surroundings is the old copper amalgam ; not only that,
but the very substance of the tooth containing such a filling itself
* I use the terms antiferment and antiset)tic interchangeably, though the former is
perhajis preferable, since we are treating of ferment, and not septic organisms.