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270 EXPOSED PULPS.

by some of whom it is claimed that the charcoal
counteracts the specific effect of the arsenic on parts
other than those for which it is directly designed.
But this theory, in the light of any elucidation yet

given, is very vague. The claim can not be, that
charcoal is an antidote to arsenic, since facts refute
it; for if it were, the arsenic of the preparation, when

applied to the pulp of a tooth, would fail of its effect,
because the charcoal, being also in contact with the
pulp, would there, if ever, counteract the poison. But
this it does not do ; for the pulp is destroyed about
as readily by this preparation as by arsenic alone.
And if, when the arsenic and charcoal are thus
together, no counteracting influence of the latter is
manifest, much less will there be any when the
arsenic, escaped from the charcoal, runs riot through
the tissues, whither the latter can not follow. The

only probable advantage, then, of this preparation, is,
that the arsenic is not taken up from it by the tissues
so rapidly, as when it is applied alone or with any

thing that is soluble with it; for, when thus applied,
the whole is very soon dissolved, and taken up by
the pulp and dentine. But, when combined with
charcoal or the like, little more of the arsenic is
absorbed than that which comes in contact with the
pulp. Hence the conclusion, that the influence of the
charcoal is mechanical, and not therapeutic.