II. On the structure and development of vascular dentine

Abstract

The nomenclature and classification of the varieties of dentine have hitherto been based solely upon the appearances discoverable in dried teeth; in the present communication the author seeks to amend and place upon a more satisfactory basis the grouping of these several kinds of dentine, by bringing to bear upon their arrangement observations upon the nature of the contents of those large tubes which give to the tissues their name of “vascular” dentine, and, more especially, observations upon the methods by which they are developed. Vaso-dentine is the term generally used to designate a variety of dentine exceedingly common in the class of Fish, in which the substance of the tooth is permeated by a number of anastomosing tubes, of considerable size, which have been called “medullary’ canals, as they have been supposed to contain pulp-tissue; whilst osteo-dentine is used to designate that variety of vaso-dentine in which the matrix is arranged in concentric layers round the canals, like the laminæ of an Haversian system in bone, and in which spaces like the lacunae of bone occur.