Page 137 - My FlipBook

the injection of the antidote into the blood we hasten the
formation of the antitoxin, for it is found that this antitoxin
acts more or less as a ferment, and promotes the formation
of more antitoxin. It is found that a very small amount of
antitoxin injected into the blood of an animal causes the
formation of considerable more in the blood, and in this way
by injecting the antitoxin early in the progress of the dis-
ease a sufficient amount of antitoxin is gained to cut the dis-
ease short. Later in the disease antitoxin can be of no
benefit whatever. This, then, is the general principle under-
lying the use of antitoxins.
I want to say just a word or two in this place connecting
this more sharply with what will probably be the future of
dental practice. I say probably because I don't know—I can
only speak of the signs of the times.
As much as ten years ago I began to point out that this
line of study would necessarily be important in dentistry in
the treatment of caries of the teeth, for the reason that Mill-
er's demonstration of the causes of caries, of the relation of
micro-organisms to decay, was incomplete, that there was
something back, lying beyond, that had an influence upon
the micro-organisms of caries of the teeth, bringing about im-
munity or susceptibility to caries of the teeth. Just what, I did
not know ; but there was something, for we find the micro-
organisms of caries growing freely in the mouths of persons
who are immune to dental caries as well as in the mouth of
those who have dental caries. It is not a something that pre-
vents the growth of the micro-organisms, but it is a some-
thing that has a peculiar influence to prevent them from
causing caries of the teeth. I have been pointing that out
every year since. I have done considerable work upon the
—
teeth, and particularly that series of investigation published
in the dental Cosmos, May, 1895—which determined that
there was no difference in the teeth themselves that w^ould
bring this about. It was supposed for many years that there
were differences in the teeth themselves ; that some teeth had
more lime salts and were protected from decay, others had
less lime salts and decayed rapidly. That notion has been
completely exploded. The teeth are practically equally hard
so far as the proportion of lime salts is concerned. Then it
was supposed that tlic faults in the teeth were a cause for do-
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