THE MICROSCOPE. 163 
does not agree with his idea. Weil seems to think these organisms 
are created expressly to bore holes in the enamel of human teeth, 
and have no need of subsistence: a sort of biological perpetual 
motion. 
Miller says: ‘“ The ordinary course of the disease is this: Enor- 
mous masses of fungi leptoterix threads, baccilli, micrococi, etc., 
work their way into the deeper parts of the softened dentine, stop 
up the dental tubuli, or destroy the dental fibrils ; the outer layers 
of dentine consequently receive no further nourishment, lose all 
vitality and fall a prey to putrefaction.” Now you will observe that 
before “the ordinary course” begins the work has been accomplished. 
That is, the tissue has been softened, the lime-salts are gone. 
According to his own saying, there is already caries of the teeth. 
After these leptothrix have penetrated so deep, the tissue must 
already have been destroyed. 
Stopping up the dental tubuli can do no harm. 
This is the method used by dentists to arrest decay. Cut off 
all communication with the outside and the more perfectly the work 
is done, the more effectually is the object accomplished. 
That such organisms are found in cavities of carous teeth can- 
not be denied. But that they do or can have any considerable 
effect upon the normal tissues of the teeth in producing disease 
there is no evidence. 
Here is one of Dr. Miller’s experiments: He places a freshly 
extracted tooth in concentrated carbolic acid, and after the space of 
one hour finds it quivering with living organisms. This is certainly 
the work of his imagination. Who could expect (knowing the 
nature of carbolic acid) to find signs of life in any organism after 
having been drowned in carbolic acid. But Dr. Miller says he has 
seen motion, quivering. He should certainly know that it could not 
be on account of any form of life known on this planet. He thinks 
it showed that the fungi had penetrated to an extreme depth. Surely 
the “ quivering” must be accounted for in some other way. Such 
statements seem to detract from the value of his conclusions. 
Here is another discovery: “The leptothrix threads contain 
granules of starch.’’ This conclusion is reached by the application 
of the same test as was used by Drs. Lieber and Rottenstine* (iodine 
and sulphuric acid) in their test for fungi, when their presence 
could not be satisfactorily determined without. But they do not 
claim it indicates the presence of starch; and botanists pretty gener- 
; a Lieber and Rottenstine on dental caries and its causes. Translated by T. H. Chand- 
er, DS 
