Anatomy of the dental system, human and comparative / by Ph. Fr. Blandin ; translated from the French, for the American journal of dental science, by Robert Arthur.

  • Blandin, Ph. Fr. (Philippe Frédéric), 1798-1849.
Date:
1845
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Anatomy of the dental system, human and comparative / by Ph. Fr. Blandin ; translated from the French, for the American journal of dental science, by Robert Arthur. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

    17/140 (page 17)
    PERIOD V. FROM HARVEY TO BICHAT. We find that, during this long period, the greatest attention was given to the study of the anatomy of the teeth. A great number of treatises were published upon this subject, but science has gained so little, and new ideas are so rare in them, that I shall be forced to pass silently by the greater part. I will make mention of the most important only, and notice those portions of them only, which are most striking. Spiegel was aware of the fact, that teeth, with curved roots, were more firmly fixed in their sockets than any others. Scaliger called them bones sui generis ; he denied that they possessed a particular sensibility, and supposed them, in this relation, to be analogous to the nails. Kerkring found them entirely analogous to the bones: besides this, he has said but few words upon the subject: de dentibus nihil dicam aliud, quam nihil esse quod hie peculiariter sit commemorandum! It is really extraordinary that this author, who studied with so much care, and who was the first to publish a generally esteemed treatise upon osteology, should have passed so lightly over a subject of this importance. Becker and Schroeder have said nothing with regard to the teeth, but what is absurd : they assure us, for instance, that those extracted from a dead body will serve as a preservative against poison, (veneficia.) Thomas Bartholin and Genga,make mention of a tooth which occupied the whole of the alveolar arch. The first says, he saw a man who had an iron tooth, and advances some trifling reasons to explain this phenomenon. Since 1 am upon this subject I will speak, also, of the famous golden tooth which has occupied so much of the attention of more recent authors, and upon which they have exhausted themselves with ridiculous explana- tions and puerile commentaries. Ungebaur, who so justly sneers at those who credited this absurd story, thought an explanation of the error might be drawn from a fact, which is sometimes observed in ruminating quadrupeds; the teeth of these animals 3