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CALCIFICATION. 83
granules of calcium salts have described them as seen in the shrunken
cells in the tissue as it is usually prepared. They are really globular,
though minute. If, just as calcitication commences, a few drops of
dilute nitric acid be placed on tlie slide near the edge of the cover-
glass, the liquid will, by capillary attraction, run under, and these re-
fractive granular bodies in the stellate reticulum will disappear, as will

Fig. 69. Fk;. to.

mi

Sections from growing tooth of calf at birth, showing how enamel rods are formed from the globu-
lar masses of calco-globulin.

Fk;. 71.

those that are in the enamel cells themselves. Large numbers of small
bubbles will accumulate, and force themselves out from under the cover-
glass. This would seem a positive demonstration of the presence, in the
stellate reticulum and enamel cells, of calcium carbonate just previous
to commencing calcification. In teasing off portions of active enamel
cells, we find the surface of the dentin on which it is being formed
covered with layers of globules that have been deposited there by the