On the structure of the teeth, the vascularity of those organs, and their relation to bone

Abstract

The microscopical examinations which the author has made of the structure of the teeth of man and various animals, lead him to the conclusion that their bony portions are formed of minute tubes, dis­posed in a radiated arrangement, in lines proceeding everywhere perpendicularly from the inner surface of the cavity containing the pulp. These tubuli are surrounded by a transparent material, which cements them together into a solid and dense mass. He finds, by applying the test of muriatic acid, that carbonate as well as phos­phate of lime enters into their composition. In man, the tubuli, du­ring their divergence from their origin at the surface of the central cavity, send off a number of very minute fibrils ; and on approach­ing the enamel or the granular substance, which cover respectively the crown and the fangs of the tooth, the tubuli divide into smaller ones, which freely anastomose with one another, and then either are continued into the enamel, or terminate at the boundary between these two substances. Various modifications of this structure, ex­hibited in the teeth of different animals, in the class Mammalia and Fishes more particularly, are minutely described. The granular sub­stance appears to be composed of irregularly shaped osseous gra­ nules, imbedded in the same kind of transparent medium which ce­ments the tubuli together. External to the granular portion, the author finds another substance entering into the formation of the simple tooth, and commencing where the enamel terminates; and which he describes as beginning by a thin and transparent layer con­taining only a few dark fibres, which pass directly outwards; but assuming, as it proceeds towards the apex of the fang, greater thickness and opacity, and being traversed by vessels. External to the enamel, and in close connexion with it, in com­pound teeth, is situated the crusta petrosa, a substance very similar to the bony layer of the simple tooth. It contains numerous cor­puscles, and is traversed by numerous vessels entering it from with­out, and anastomosing freely with one another, but terminating in its substance. These investigations of the structure of the different component parts of teeth, furnish abundant evidence of their vascu­larity and consequent vitality.