162 THE MICROSCOPE. 
scientists, especially pathologists, chemists, etc., are to be found on 
the other side. I have not forgotten Virchow, Heckel and many 
others whose names might be mentioned. But it is a curious fact 
that from Germany comes at the same time some of our greatest 
- discoveries and greatest humbugs in science. It has been truly 
said: ‘Superstition forever lurks about the camp fires of science.” 
And it really seems, too, that often we seize an idea more because 
it is novel than because of any substantial proof in its favor. 
My objections to the germ theory of caries are the following: 
1st. The earthy material is dissolved out long before the organic 
portion of the tooth is broken down. A microscopic examination of 
a tooth, with even a low powered objective, will show this to be the 
case. Whereas an organism operating upon the tooth would destroy 
the organic portion of the tooth first; and removal of the lime salts 
would be merely incidental, and the diseased portion of the tooth 
would lose all structure. This, however, is not the case until long 
after the inorganic part is gone. 2d. It is not likely that an organ- 
ism so simple in its organization as bacteria could subsist and repro- 
duce itself so rapidly as they, and still have force enough left to per- 
form a work requiring so much energy as the destruction of tissue 
like the teeth is composed of, the hardest in the body, and that 
would be of so little use to them. For they could not appropriate 
the earthy material, and the rest of the tissue would afford but little 
nourishment. 3d. An artificially decalcified tooth presents about the 
same appearance under the microscope as a carous one would. Like 
causes produce like effects. 
Dr. Miller quotes from A. Weil, in saying that a specie of bac- 
teria leptothoix bucalis bore directly through Nasmyth’s membrane 
into the enamel. What for? It certainly seems strange that these 
minute and soft-bodied organisms, without organs of special function, 
so far as we know, could sink a shaft into a tissue like the enamel 
where there is only about from three to five per cent. organic mat- 
ter. They could certainly do better on the outside. These organ- 
isms must subsist while doing their evil work; and the enamel is the 
hardest tissue of the body. But right here Miller goes on to say: 
“These organisms attack first the organic material, and feeding upon 
it create an acid which removes the lime-salts.” It would seem that 
alarge quantity of acid is generated from the small quantity of 
organic material contained in a tooth, about twenty-five per cent. at 
most. But unfortunately the “organic material” is the last to be 
destroyed. His statement is not borne out by an examination of the 
tooth. The statement of A. Weil, from whom he quotes, certainly 
