PRODUCTS, ADVENTITIOUS. 



83 



and very light, thrown off from an ulcer in the 

 palate. Otto * knew a person in whom, during 

 an atonic attack of gout, the whole mouth, 

 throat, and gullet were largely covered with a 

 whitish mucus [diphtheritic deposit ?], which 

 contained a large quantity of phosphate of lime. 



(/.) Salivary calculi. The calculous accu- 

 mulations met with not very unfrequently in 

 connection with the salivary glands, are com- 

 monly regarded as depositions from the sa- 

 liva, and may be generically termed ptyaliths 

 (irrvaXov, saliva, and \i6o, a stone). But they 

 are at the least depositions from saliva of 

 morbid composition, for while they are essen- 

 tially formed of phosphate of lime f, this salt 

 scarcely exists in the healthy fluid, and indeed 

 is not enumerated among its ingredients at all 

 by either Berzelius, Graham, or Wright. It be- 

 comes, therefore, extremely probable that the 

 excess of phosphate is generated through the 

 influence of irritation of mucous membrane. 

 Salivary calculi are of much more common 

 occurrence in some of the lower animals (c. g. 

 the horse, ass, and dog) than in the human 

 subject. 



The parotid gland is less frequently the seat 

 of these products than the submaxillary and 

 especially than the sublingual gland. Polker 

 extracted an encysted stalactiform calculus, 15 

 lines long, 9 broad, and weighing 120 grains, 

 from the parotid, composed of phosphate of 

 lime and animal matter. Breschet describes 

 white calculi of scaly fracture, some of them 

 crystallized in regular tetrahedra, and having a 

 nucleus composed of a grain of oats, which 

 were discovered in the maxUlerry glands of an 

 elephant : here, in addition to phosphate of 

 lime and animal matter, there was carbonate of 

 lime. The affection called ramda is produced 

 by obstruction of the ducts of the sublingtial 

 gland with calculous matter, which may form a 

 single large mass, or be united into numerous 

 minute ones. Chronic inflammation and ab- 

 scess are the frequent results of such accu- 

 mulations. 



Of similar origin is the calculous matter 

 which gathers round the teeth, commonly 

 called tartar or odontoliths (o5o>!/, a tooth, and 

 Ai0oe, a stone). Two kinds of tartar have been 

 distinguished by Duvalf : a, tartar of deep 

 grey or even blackish colour, hard and com- 

 pact, smooth on the surface, breaking almost 

 like glass, and forming first on the root of the 

 tooth, whence it spreads to the enamel ; b, tar- 

 tar of yellowish colour, less compact, friable, 

 less smooth on the surface, forming on the 

 enamel near the gums, whence it spreads to the 

 crown in the majority of cases, but sometimes 

 insinuates itself under thegums. Tartar appears 

 first as a thin layer of slimy matter, which 

 hardens ; another layer is then deposited, 

 hardens in its turn, and so on. It accumulates 

 enormously in some instances, exceeds the 

 tooth (to which it is often most firmly united) 



* Patholog. Anat. by South, p. 103. 

 f Poggiale (Journ. de Pharmacie, p. 337, 1839) 

 found so much as 94 per 100 of this salt. 

 J Bull, de la Faculte de Me'd. 1815, No. 7. 



in size, and sometimes detrudes this from its 

 socket. Berzelius found it composed of 



Earthy phosphates 79.0 



Undecomposed mucus 12.5 



Peculiar salivary matter (Ptyalin) 1.0 

 Animal matter soluble in hydro- 

 chloric acid 7.5 



100.0 



Buhlmann * has recently drawn attention 

 to certain microscopical corpuscles, most fre- 

 quently met with on teeth surrounded with 

 tartar, yet not altogether absent from the 

 cleanest. Originally described by Leeuwen- 

 hoeck, these bodies are of filiform shape, and 

 found in three conditions : a, yellowish fibres 

 usually collected into tufts ; b, the same fibres 

 broken and scattered among the epithelium and 

 mucus; c, tufts of fibres mixed up with gra- 

 nular matter. They measure about 0.00006th 

 of a Paris inch in breadth ; from -j^-th to i a line 

 in length : they are smooth, arched, or" wavy, 

 somewhat elastic and transparent and of yel- 

 lowish white colour. The strongest nitric, sul- 

 phuric, and hydrochloric acids and caustic 

 alkalies produce no change but that of render- 

 ing them a little more transparent : they are 

 unaltered by heat. They are chiefly abundant 

 at the junction of the tooth and gum. In- 

 fusoria (genera Vibrio and Monas) are also 

 found in this substance. 



(g.) The tonsils are not unfrequently the 

 seat of phosphatic deposit. A calculus formed 

 in one of the tonsils, of greyish white colour, 

 containing an oval nucleus, was found by 

 Wurzer to consist of phosphate of lime 63.8, 

 carbonate of lime 16.7, animal matter 13.3, 

 ptyalin with chlorides of sodium and potassium 

 7.1, iron and traces of manganese O.l.-j- 



(h.] The pharynx and oesophagus have both 

 been, though in extremely rare instances, the 

 seat of calculous incrustations. Riviere and 

 Bartholinus relate such cases. 



(/.) Castro-intestinal calculi. The calculi 

 discovered in the intestinal canal agree, as regards 

 such saline materials as enter into their compo- 

 sition, in being essentially formed of earthy 

 phosphates, especially that of lime. They may, 

 however, be wholly free from saline matter. 



Intestinal calculi are generally few in num. 

 ber, unless when of biliary origin : as many as 

 thirty, however, were found in the stomach by 

 Bilguer. Their size varies remarkably, from 

 that of a nut to a mass larger than the clenched 

 hand : their weight varies proportionally, they 

 have been known to weigh a pound and a half, 

 two, and even four pounds. Their specific 

 gravity is low, varying from 1000 to 1400, 

 Their shape is irregularly rounded, the irregu- 

 larity being greatest in the largest masses, and, 

 like biliary calculi, they affect their own forms 

 mutually by lateral pressure. They occur in 

 all parts of the intestinal tract, but are most 



* Miiller's Archiv., H. iv. S. 442, 1840. 

 t See also Schiitz, Caspar's Wochenscrift, No. 45, 

 1838. 



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