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PATHOLOGICAL CONDITIONS. 235

inflammation in the more highly organized parts,

occasion it in the living dentine ; this condition of
the teeth is always affected by a general inflammatory
diathesis, and their sensitiveness, when there is this
general tendency to inflammation, is always increased,
and local treatment in such case will commonly be
inefficient ; a modification of such a condition of the
system produces a very corresponding change in the
affected teeth ; and those remedial agents which are
employed in the topical treatment of inflammation

elsewhere, are successfully used in the treatment of
inflamed dentine. From all these circumstances we
infer that this affection of the teeth is a real inflam-
mation.
As it has been already remarked, the only definite
and direct indication of inflammation of the dentine,
is exalted sensibility ; though this is not an immedi-
ate consequence of that condition, independent of

external circumstances; for the pain resulting directly
from inflammation in the soft parts, is not experi-
enced here, by reason of the low grade of vitality and
the feeble circulation. But the teeth, in a state of
inflammation, will suffer pain when subjected to sud-
den variations of temperature, whether induced by
the air, by fluids, or by any hard substance; and
7
w hen subjected to the influence of agents that irri-
tate the nerve-tissue anywhere, such as acids, some