CHAPTER IV. 

 ABSORPTION. OF THE DECIDUOUS TEETH.* 



" The processes of absorption of any tissue are in; 

 some ways similar to- those observed in certain inflam- 

 matory affections. In inflammation of the hard tissues- 

 in other parts of the body there is noticed an action 

 upon the bony materials by which they are slowly 

 separated from the mass of hard tissue in their 

 vicinity, and are at length either reduced to a form 

 in which they may be taken up and removed by the 

 natural organs of circulation, or they may be removed' 

 in part by absorption, and the remainder may be ex- 

 truded from the place it occupied in the tissues, thus- 

 completing the removal of the substance from the- 

 body. 



" All the hard tissues of the body are everywhere 

 permeated by delicate filaments of connective tissue.. 

 which carry on the functions of nutrition in the purt r 

 and are the means of preserving its vitality. This is 

 true in the teeth as well as in other forms of hard 

 animal tissue, and may be traced into the finer canals 

 of the dentine and has been thought to penetrate evert 

 the structure of the enamel. 



*Blodgctt. 



45 



