ATTACHMENT OF TEETH. 489 



from the texture of their periosteum being much softer and 

 more yielding. 



A question of some interest has recently arisen in regard to 

 the precise apparatus of attachment of the fangs of both sets of 

 teeth to their alveolar cavities. The principal cause of attach- 

 ment is attributed to a distinct ligament or fasciculus for each 

 tooth, having for its position the side of the tooth the most dis- 

 tant from the front line of the symphysis of the jaws. The liga- 

 ment thus situated is said to arise from the edge of the alveo- 

 lus between the teeth, and proceeding forwards in the case of 

 the molars, and inwards in the case of the incisors: to be inserted 

 into the neck of the tooth not quite the sixteenth part of an inch 

 from the enamel. The ligamentous character is considered as 

 very distinct, the fibres being white and shining like tendon. 

 The exclusive cutting of it is also said to facilitate very much 

 the extraction of a tooth.* 



My own observations, made upon the parts softened in mu- 

 riatic acid, and in the recent state, have not led me to see the 

 ligamentum dentis in so distinct a light or to witness the extreme 

 facility of extraction after it alone is cut. It is, however, pro- 

 bable that the insinuation of an instrument between the tooth 

 and alveolus will generally, to the extent of the incision, dimi- 

 nish the force of resistance in pulling the tooth out. The ac- 

 tual adhesion of the tooth to the alveolus appears to me to 

 arise from the original capsules of the teeth being converted 

 into a single layer of periosteum, one surface of which ad- 

 heres to the alveolus, and the other to the fang of the tooth. 

 The adhesion I have found particularly strong at the margin 

 of the alveolus, and converging circularly from it to the neck of 

 the tooth, somewhat in the manner of a coronary ligament. 

 Another subject of remark is, that the filaments of periosteum 

 are not laid down laterally to the teeth, but one end of the fila- 

 ment adheres to the alveolus, and the other to the tooth, like 

 the filaments of the interosseous ligament at the lower junction 

 of the tibia and tibula. In this way a cap of such fibres is found 

 over the whole fang of the tooth: one of the best means of de- 



* See Description of the Ligamentum Dentis, by Paul B. Goddard, M. D. in 

 Am. Journ. of Med. Sciences, vol. xxiii. Phil. 1839. 



