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ETIOLOGY OF DENTAL DECAY. 213
The total absence of decay in a closed root-canal whicli has
for years been harl)oring a putrid pnlp and innumeraljle bacteria
is a still less warrantable objection to the above-mentioned theory.
It evinces an entire ignorance of the vital conditions and fer-
mentative action of bacteria. For, in the first place, the bacteria
in a closed root-canal either perish, or, what happens more
rarely, T)ecome inactive as soon as the nutriment in the pulp is
consumed, i.e., in a few days. In the second place, even
though they could really vegetate for years in a root-canal, we
should still have no reason to expect decay, becanse the cjirbo-
hydrates, essential to the formation of acids, are wanting. The
reaction of a putrid pulp is invariably alkaline.
Leber and Rottenstein ^* discovered after boring into two
incisors, which had a peculiar blue color without exhibiting a
trace of decay externally, that the entire interior of the teeth
was brown, completely softened up to the enamel, and that even
the root was hollow. Such very exceptional cases " must not
be identitied with common caries." They are of such rare
occurrence that no satisfactory explanation of them has yet been
offered, and every one who reads the report of them can only
shrug his shoulders and wait for the day when he may have an
opportunity to examine such a case personally, an opportunity
which but rarely comes even once in a lifetime.
The view that during the disintegration of the pulp the acid
necessary for the softening of the dentine was formed, is untena-
ble, tirst, because the reaction of putrid pulps is always alkaline;
secondly, because even in case an acid reaction should take place,
under peculiar circumstances, all bacteria of the pulp would l)e
destroyed long before even a fraction of the quantity of acid
(^ requisite to decalcification would 1)e formed. We cannot as-
cribe this occurrence to a process of nitrification, such as occurs
in the soil, since this demands free access of air.
In support of the inflammation theory, a difference has been
assumed between decay of living and dead teeth. It has been
asserted that the softened layer of dentine is much thinner,
dryer, and blacker in dead than in li^dng teeth. Every practi-
tioner has surely seen phenomena which seem to agree with this
assertion, but a satisfactory explanation may be found without
ETIOLOGY OF DENTAL DECAY. 213
The total absence of decay in a closed root-canal whicli has
for years been harl)oring a putrid pnlp and innumeraljle bacteria
is a still less warrantable objection to the above-mentioned theory.
It evinces an entire ignorance of the vital conditions and fer-
mentative action of bacteria. For, in the first place, the bacteria
in a closed root-canal either perish, or, what happens more
rarely, T)ecome inactive as soon as the nutriment in the pulp is
consumed, i.e., in a few days. In the second place, even
though they could really vegetate for years in a root-canal, we
should still have no reason to expect decay, becanse the cjirbo-
hydrates, essential to the formation of acids, are wanting. The
reaction of a putrid pulp is invariably alkaline.
Leber and Rottenstein ^* discovered after boring into two
incisors, which had a peculiar blue color without exhibiting a
trace of decay externally, that the entire interior of the teeth
was brown, completely softened up to the enamel, and that even
the root was hollow. Such very exceptional cases " must not
be identitied with common caries." They are of such rare
occurrence that no satisfactory explanation of them has yet been
offered, and every one who reads the report of them can only
shrug his shoulders and wait for the day when he may have an
opportunity to examine such a case personally, an opportunity
which but rarely comes even once in a lifetime.
The view that during the disintegration of the pulp the acid
necessary for the softening of the dentine was formed, is untena-
ble, tirst, because the reaction of putrid pulps is always alkaline;
secondly, because even in case an acid reaction should take place,
under peculiar circumstances, all bacteria of the pulp would l)e
destroyed long before even a fraction of the quantity of acid
(^ requisite to decalcification would 1)e formed. We cannot as-
cribe this occurrence to a process of nitrification, such as occurs
in the soil, since this demands free access of air.
In support of the inflammation theory, a difference has been
assumed between decay of living and dead teeth. It has been
asserted that the softened layer of dentine is much thinner,
dryer, and blacker in dead than in li^dng teeth. Every practi-
tioner has surely seen phenomena which seem to agree with this
assertion, but a satisfactory explanation may be found without
