644 THE TEETH. 



in the basis-substance. Where before a fibrous reticulum was visible contain- 

 ing in its meshes a basis-substance with central nuclei, in the earliest stages 

 of inflammation numerous plastids are seen, either closely packed together in 

 clusters or separated from each other by layers of a granular bioplasson. 



The process of inflammation in many instances does not invade the whole 

 of the pulp at the same time, but only in part. 



The manner in which the inflammatory corpuscles make their appearance is 

 as follows : Portions of living matter of either the myxomatous reticulum and 

 its nuclei, or of the basis-substance (evidently after its liquefaction), grow into 

 shining homogeneous lumps, from which nucleated plastids arise by a differen- 

 tiation of the living matter into a reticulum. The living matter of the nerve- 

 fibers likewise furnishes material for the formation of inflammatory corpuscles, 

 which in slight degrees of this process are traceable in the shape of longi- 

 tudinal rows. In higher degrees even these reminders of former nerve- 

 bundles are lost. The blood-vessels soon perish on a large scale. Even in the 

 early stages of pulpitis we have difficulty in tracing blood-vessels, as most of 

 them are either compressed or made impermeable by a process of solidification 

 and splitting into inflammatory corpuscles. Where blood-vessels are seen 

 unbroken, they appear considerably dilated and engorged with blood-corpus- 

 cles. The arteries resist the destruction for the longest period of time. An 

 artery in one of my specimens, cut transversely, shows the concentric layer 

 of smooth muscles, divided into small lumps, and in its caliber a large num- 

 ber of inflammatory corpuscles, which have evidently sprung from prolifera- 

 tion of the endothelial coat. 



As the process of pulpitis advances, at first the secondary and afterward 

 the primary dentine is destroyed to a greater or less extent. The solid basis- 

 substance of the dentine is at first deprived of its lime-salts, after which the 

 gluey portion is liquefied. This process invariably takes places in the globu- 

 lar territories of the dentine, and by coalescence of such territories bay-like 

 excavations originate in the dentine, at first with faint outlines, and afterward 

 sharply defined from the calcified basis-substance. In consequence of the lique- 

 faction, the original bioplasson condition of the dentine is reestablished. If 

 the inflammatory process is slow or chronic, it may happen that from a former 

 territory of dentine, by a process of recalcification, a territory of bone is formed, 

 in the center of which we recognize an oblong branching bone-corpuscle. This 

 formation, however, is rather exceptional. The rule is that the bioplasson 

 filling a bay-like excavation becomes supplied with a number of new nuclei, 

 thus representing the stage of a multinuclear body. Such a mass splits into 

 a large number of inflammatory corpuscles, the sum total of which, in the bay- 

 like excavations as well as in the pulp-tissue proper, establishes a condition 

 termed inflammatory infiltration. (See Fig. 281.) In milder forms of inflam- 

 mation the pulp-tissue, although considerably changed, still remains a tissue, 

 viz. , as long as the delicate filaments of living matter interconnect the single 

 inflammatory corpuscles with one another. Should the inflammatory process 

 abate at this stage, the tissue may proceed to the formation of a new basis- 

 substance. Every variety of connective tissue, once inflamed, becomes a fibrous 

 or cicatricial tissue. It is quite possible, therefore, that the few pulps I have 

 met with exhibiting the structure of fibrous connective tissue, and scantily 

 supplied with blood-vessels, are the products of a former inflammation. It is 

 also probable that an advance to the formation of other tissues found in the 

 pulp, such as dentine and bone, is the result of a slight inflammatory condi- 



