48 VETERINART DENTAL SURGERY. 



integrated textures of the tooth, and in this way is 

 brought about the removal of the entire radical 

 portion of the dental structures. There is no attend- 

 ing suppuration in the process of absorption, and 

 the entire course of the process is devoid of pain. 

 There is often a certain amount of redness and 

 swelling of the soft structures about the neck of the 

 deciduous tooth during the process of absorption, 

 but this may well be due, in part at least, to the irri- 

 tation of the tissues about the part, caused by pres- 

 sure upon the shortened and loosened deciduous 

 tooth, and also to the natural tendency to vascularity 

 accompanying any process of growth or develop- 

 ment. 



" The process of natural absorption of dentinal 

 tissues bears no relation to caries of these textures. 

 This event is one of natural removal of normal 

 structures. Caries is the pathological degeneration 

 of the same structures, by means of disease, and is 

 accompanied, if not caused by chemical action and is 

 universally the seat of disorganization of the tissues 

 of the tooth; it is also accompanied by the presence 

 of bacterial organisms, and usually also by the putre- 

 faction of the products of the disorganization of the 

 tooth substance. Caries takes its rise at all times 

 from without. Absorption progresses from the apex 

 of the root. Absorption is accompanied by a new 

 formation of medullary or myxomatous tissue which 



