WHEN SUPPURATING, ETC. 3r O 



by caries or accident; it has resulted from an 

 interesting question raised at the last meeting 

 of this Society by Mr. Cartwright, viz., "as to 

 whether a dental pulp that has been in a suppu- 

 rating condition can ever take on a healthy 

 action and become calcified." 



My own opinion was, and I found my practice 

 upon it, that the same conditions might exist 

 in the dental pulp that we find in other struc- 

 tures of the body, and that healthy action might 

 be set up and secondary dentine formed in a tooth 

 the pulp of which had been in that state of inflam- 

 mation termed the suppurative. The truth of 

 this opinion I never had the opportunity of veri- 

 fying, satisfactorily, until a week or two ago, 

 which was since the last meeting ; and as I keep 

 notes of most of my cases, I am enabled to bring 

 one under your notice which, I think, will prove 

 that my previous opinions were not incorrect. 



Mr. T — , 88t. about 43, came to me on the 

 28th of October of last year, ha^dng the first upper 

 bicuspid of the left side considerably decayed on 

 its anterior surface ; and as the second bicuspid 

 of the same side had been removed, and there was 

 a space between the first bicuspid and the canine 

 tooth, a very good view of the cavity could be 

 obtained. The patient informed me that he suf- 

 fered a good deal of pain in it at various times, 

 and complained of an unpleasant taste arising 

 from it. 



