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EARLY DESTRUCTION OF THE TEETH. Ill 



a tooth, the enamel and bone, when once formed, 

 depend as little upon nutriment for their future 

 support, as do stone, brick, and plaster, used in the 

 erection of a building ; both structures are sup- 

 ported and upheld by the power of affinity ; both 

 require watchful inspection, and a similar mode of 

 treatment is necessary to protect them from external 

 agency ; and if this be neglected, the result in both 

 cases will be the same — a breaking down of the 

 structure. 



This destructive influence from without is not 

 always confined to inorganic bodies ; an attack is 

 often made upon a tree, and when it becomes neces- 

 sary to lop off any of the branches, the gardener 

 is carefal to cut them in a slanting direction, so as 

 to leave no lodging-place for extraneous matter, 

 otherwise if the branch were broken, or torn off, a 

 ragged place would be left — a resting-place for the 

 destructive agent to settle in, which would not fail 

 to work its way into the body of the tree. 



I have met mth several instances of this kind, 

 where decay had made some progress, and where 

 the gardener had exercised the art of the dentist, 

 by removing the decayed portion, and filling up the 

 hole with some kind of cement, as a remedy for the 

 evil. 



Upon examining the molar teeth immediately 

 upon their appearance above the gums, we generally 

 find them presenting deep pits and fissures, arising, 

 as I have before said, from the irregular distribution 



