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teeth open, after sufficient hardening, and cut sections of the ;
pulp tissue and examined it with the microscope, to know, and
I have never yet found one of these pulps that was fully
exposed to the carious process that was not an inflamed pulp.
Now, we may find pulps that have been aching, been causing
pain, that have been hyperemic, and from encroachment of
decay giving a great deal of trouble, that are not exposed pulps,
and they are not inflamed pulps. From the symptom of pain
you cannot tell whether a pulp is inflamed or not. Inflamma-
tion is not always painful ; a pulp may inflame, it may sup-
purate and go to pieces and the patient give no history of pain
therefore, you will have to depend upon your knowledge of
caries, of its mode of progression, of its relation to the pulp, for
your knowledge of the condition of the pulp under the decayed
area. Then you should not leave a portion of decayed dentin
over a pulp and soak it with antiseptics, hoping in that way it
may do no harm, for by adding the antiseptic you only add
another poison to be absorbed gradually into the pulp tissue
and assist in its destruction. If the pulp has been infected
you cannot hope to successfully disinfect it in such a way as
that ; you only hasten its destruction.
If any of you should undertake to prepare specirnens, as
I hope many of you will (for when you go out to practice
most of you will have some time that might be very usefully
employed in such work ; those who dO' not will be unfortunate,
for the young man who is going- out to practice ought to have
a good deal of time for study) be careful always in your selec-
tion of the cavity to be examined that it is one in which decay
is actively progressing, and that you use it fresh. If the de-
cayed miass had become dark colored the probabilities are that
the micro-organisms in that decayed mass are dead, and dead
micro-organisms do not stain well. Again, in selecting a cavity,
select one that has a considerable mass of softened material.
Those that are actively progressing usually have something of
a mass of softened material, and this will be something of a
guide. You may prepare the sections in various ways : First,
you may percolate the tooth and the area of decay with balsam,
allow it to gradually harden until it becomes hard and flinty,
and then grind in water until the section is sufficiently thin. In
this way you will retain the enamel, the decayed area and the
micro-organisms in it, and the dentin, and you will get a com-
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