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106 HUNTER ON THE TEETH.
OF THE GUMS.
The Alveolar Processes are covered by a red vascular sub-
stance, called the Gums, which has as many perforations as
there are Teeth ; and the neck of a Tooth is covered by, and
fixed to this Gum. Thence there are fleshy partitions between
the Teeth, passing between the external and internal Gum,
and, as it were, uniting them ; these partitions are higher
than the other parts of the Gum, and thence form an arch
between every two adjacent Teeth. The thickness of that
part of that Gum which projects beyond the sockets is
considerable ; so that when the Gum is corroded by disease,
by boiling, or otherwise, the Teeth appear longer, or
less sunk into the Jaw. The Gum adheres very firmly in a
healthful state both to the Alveolar Process and to the Teeth,
but its extreme border is naturally loose all around the Teeth.
The Gum, in substance, has something of a cartilaginous hard-
ness and elasticity, and is very vascular, but seems not to have
any great degree of sensibility ; for though we often wound it
in eating, and in picking our Teeth, yet we do not feel much
pain upon these occasions ; and both in infants and old people,
where there are no Teeth, the Gums bear a very considerable
pressure, without pain, (r)
The advantage arising from this degree of insensibility in
the Gums is obvious, for till the child cuts its Teeth, the Gums
are to do the business of Teeth, and are therefore formed for
this purpose, having a hard ridge running through their whole

(r) [The gum (gingiva) owes its resistance principally to the hardness
of the subjacent parts ; in itself it is soft. It is composed of a firm, dense,
whitish, submucous tissue, and a proper mucous membrane, covered
by a layer of pavement epithelium. The mucous membrane bears
papilla; of considerable size (0-15'" to 0-3'"). The epithelium is 0-23'" to
According to Kolliker, there
0-4'" in thickness between the papillae.
are no glands in the gum. He observes : " We must be careful not to
take for the orifices of glands, certain rounded depressions of the epithe-
lium, O08"' to Crl5'" in diameter, with cornified epithelial cells."(l)]
(1) Kolliker, op cit., p. 300.