Page 257 - My FlipBook

OF THE IMMEDIATE FASTENING, ETC. 2-il —
jected the head with a very minute injection : the comb was
then taken off, and put into a weak acid, and the Tooth being
softened by this means, I slit the comb and tooth into two
halves, in the long direction of the Tooth. I found the
vessels of the Tooth well injected, and also observed that the
external surface of the Tooth adhered everywhere to the
comb by vessels similar to the union of a Tooth with the
Gum and Sockets.* (/)

* I may here just remark that this experiment is not generally at-
tended with success. I succeeded but ouce out of a great number of
trials.

[It is unnecessary in the present day to enter into any discussion
(f)
on the merits of an operation now, I believe, wholly discontinued. From
the experiments which Hunter made on the transplanting of teeth from
the jaw to other situations, and the successful result of several of them,
the operation in question became a favourite one with him ; and it ap-
pears to have been very frequently performed either by himself or
under his directions. The frequent failures which occurred, even in the
operation itself, and still more the severe results which very often suc-
ceeded its performance at different periods, have very properly induced
almost all subsequent practitioners to abandon its employment. Nothing
but the sanguine expectations created in an ardent mind, by the interest-
ing results wUicti followed his first experiments, could account for a
man of so sound a judgment having followed up a practice so obviously
objectionable. The experiment with which this section is closed has,
however, an interest attached to it far more important than its having
given rise to the temporary adoption of an objectionable operation. In
the result of this experiment may be found an interesting collateral
argument in favour of the organised structure of the teeth, and their
actual living connexion with the body. The vessels of the tooth, we
are told, were well injected, and the external surface adhered every-
where to the comb by vessels. To what purpose are those vessels
formed, what object can possibly be fulfilled by the existence of a
vascular pulp in the interior cavity, and a vascular periosteum covering
the external surface—so obviously vascular that it was well injected
from the vessels of a cock's comb into which it had been transplanted
unless they are intended to nourish the bony substance of which the
tooth consists, and to form the medium of its connexion with the general
system ?—T. Bell.]