Page 189 - My FlipBook

SYMPTOMS OF INFLAMMATION. 17S

to granulations, so as to be buried, covered up, and made part
of ourselves, as happens to other bones, (which would destroy
any use of a Tooth) the inflammation wears out, or rather the
parts not being susceptible of this irritation, beyond a certain
time, the inflammation gradually goes off, and leaves the Tooth
No permanent cure therefore can
in its original diseased state.
possibly be effected by such inflammations, but the parts being
left in the same state as before, they are still subject to
repetitions of inflammation, till some change takes place,
preventing future attacks, which I believe is generally, if not
always, effected by the destruction of those parts which are the
seat of it, viz. the soft parts within the Tooth, (g)
Nature seems in some measure, to have considered the Teeth
as aliens, only giving them nourishment while sound and fit for
service, but not allowing them when diseased the common
benefits of that society in which they are placed. They cannot
exfoliate, as no operations go on in them except growth ; there-
fore, if any part is dead, the living has not the power of throw-
ing it off, and forming an external surface capable of supporting
itself, like the other parts of the body : indeed, if they had

(g) [In the previous paragraph the Author has been speaking of
caries, but in the present he evidently refers to inflammation of the
periosteum, for it is not until this membrane has become affected,
that the symptoms which he ha? described take place. Hunter,
in fact, confounds together the inflammation of the pulp and of
the periosteum of the tooth. To say that the surrounding parts have
" less aptitude for such connexion" is only another mode of expressing
the fact tbat union between a tooth and its socket is extremely rare, if,
indeed, it ever takes place. The non-occurrence of this union appears
to the writer to show that the periosteum is not common to the socket
and the fang of the tooth as asserted by Hunter, nor is it a reflection
of that which lines the socket as stated by Bell, but is formed by
a prolongation of the outermost membrane of the tooth germ; the
periosteum of the alveolus being distinct and consisisting of a very
delicate membrane resembling that which lines the medullary cavity of
the long bones.]
Y