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46 THE MICRO-ORGANISMS OF THE HUMAN MOUTH.

condition of his teeth and asked him when he had last brushed
them, to which the latter replied that he was not in the habit of
brushing his teeth at all. Leeuwenhoek, who never allowed any
opportunity to pass bv unheeded, immediately made the request
to be allowed to make an examination of the old man's saliva
and of the greasy deposit (" materia alba") upon his teeth. In
this deposit he found so many animalcula, " ^lt tota aqua rircre
videatur." This observation agrees perfectly with our present
knowledge as to the occurrence of mobile bacteria (Spirillum
sputigenum, etc.) in the oral cavity.
Lebeaume compared tartar, as the breeding-place and habita-
tion of these animalcula, to coral formations. Mandl^^ supposes
tartar to form through the accumulations of the calcareous
remains of vibrios, which he describes as rod-vibrios. Heat,
spirituous liquors, and muriatic acid were found to destroy them.
Blihlmann^'^ observed the thread-forming bacteria of the mouth
and called them simply fibers, without expressing any definite
opinion concerning their animal or vegetable nature.
Henle^^ was the first to give expression to the view that these
buccal organisms were of a vegetable nature.
ErdP- (1843) treated carious teeth with muriatic acid, thereby
loosening from the crown of the tooth a delicate, colorless mem-
brane, composed of cells, which, in his opinion, is of a parasitic
nature {ride Chapter VI).
A considerable advance in the study of the micro-organisms
of the human mouth, as well as of the mouths of various domes-
tic animals, was made by Ficinus,^^ a physician of Dresden, from
whose dissertation on this subject the following passage is taken :
" If a small quantity of the yellowish-white slimy substance
found upon every tooth is brought under the microscope, fibers
of a peculiar nature will be found, which have already been
mentioned by Leeuwenhoek and drawn by Biililmann. Between
these lie dense masses of very small granules, epithelial cells,
and mucus corpuscles. Occasionally a few infusoria, which have
accidentally entered the mouth with food and drink, move across
the field of vision. The interstices remaining between the masses
of granular substance, when examined under high power and by
good light (particularly on addition of a little water or saliva),