Page 173 - My FlipBook

ON TRANSPLANTING THE TEETH. 157
This disposition is not so considerable in the more perfect or
complex animals, such as quadrupeds, as it is in the more
simple or imperfect ; nor in old animals, as in young : for the
living principle in young animals, and those of simple construc-
tion, is not so much confined to, or derived from one part of
the body so that it continues longer in a part separated from
;
their bodies, and even would appear to be generated in it for
some time; while a part, separated from an older, or more
perfect animal, dies sooner, and would appear to have its life
entirely dependent on the body from which it was taken.
Taking off the young spur of a cock, and fixing it to his
comb, is an old and well known experiment.
I have also frequently taken out the Testis of a cock and re-
placed it in his belly, where it has adhered, and has been
nourished ; nay, I have put the Testis of a cock into the belly
of a hen with the same effect.
In like manner a fresh Tooth, when transplanted from one
socket to another, becomes to all appearance a part of that body
to which it is now attached, as much as it was of the one from
which it was taken ; while a Tooth which has been extracted
for some time, so as to lose the whole of its life, will never be-
come firm or fixed : the sockets will also in this case acquire
the disposition to fill up, which they do not in the case of the
insertion of a fresh Tooth, (s)

(s) [The practice of transplanting teeth from one person to another
originated, I believe, with Hunter, under whose superintendence it was
frequently performed. Had the results of all these cases been known to
him, it is probable that this recommendation would not have been
written ; there is not, I believe, a single instance of its perfect success,
and there are many in which it has been followed by even fatal results.
Fox, in his excellent practical work on the teeth, strongly reprobates this
practice, and has probably prevented much pain and disease by exposing
its continual failure, its occasional injurious results, and the want of cor-
rect feeling which seems to be necessarily involved in its performance.
The tooth figured by Fox as having been the subject of this operation is
now in the collection of Guy's Hospital its root is deeply eroded by
;
absorption.] T. Bell.