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THE DENTAL FOLLICLE. 71

process of calcification is about to begin, and are constantly present
while it is going on, throughout the process of the formation of the
tooth.
Dr. Suckluth is authority for the statement that there is no real
union between the dentin germ and the enamel organ. There exists
no intimate connection between the two surfaces other than that of per-
fect adaptation to each other : vessels or nerves have never been dem-
onstrated to pass from one to the other. The relation is analogous to
that sustained by the epithelium and dermal layers of the mucous
membrane of the oral cavity, from which they have their origin.
Bodecker, on the other hand, states that there is a connection between
tlie two. He says that when the enamel organ is detached from the
papilla—as it frequently is, in sections—its outer surface appears beset
with an extremely delicate fringe, the true connection between the pa-
pilla and the enamel organ.
The Dental Follicle.
The walls of the dental sacculus have their orio;in in the area of
tissue which is so plainly marked by its increasing growth, seen just
under the enamel organ while in the shape of a flask. At this early stage
are seen, from the outer edges of this area of tissue, encircling processes
which, as the dentin germ forms, grow rapidly up, surrounding the
enamel organ on all sides (see Fig. 53). Some authorities have stated
that the dental sacculus does not wholly cover the enamel organ, but
in the collection of the writer are specimens where its walls are seen
to completely cover the dentin germ, so that it apparently is wholly
enclosed. The bone of the jaw is now forming rapidly about it (mak-
ing a nest, as it were, in which the sacculus and its contents, now
the dental foUide, rest. The cells within the tissue of this sac are
found to ha\'e separated by growth into two layers. They have not
changed their form, but remain connective-tissue cells. The outer
layer is seen to be much denser and very much more vascular than
the inner one, and this is to form the dental periosteum ; the inner one
is said to form the cementum of the root.
This diiferentiation of a portion of the dental sac into a softer and
looser tissue, but little firmer than that of the stellate reticulum of the
enamel organ, has been thought by Magitot to be sufficiently pronounced
to justify him in calling it a distinct organ,—the " cement organ." But
the existence of such an organ is doubted by many authorities. Prof.
Sudduth is of the opinion that the tissues of the sacculus do not arise
wholly from the base of the dentin germ, but largely from a conden-
sation of the fibrous connective tissue in which the enamel organ lies.
The follicular wall just over the surface of the enamel organ is often-