58 MICROSCOPIC ANATOMY OF THE TEETH 



Mr. Douglas Caush (5) long ago described staining of 

 normal enamel by several methods, and Dr. von Beust (3) 

 and others have succeeded in staining portions of the 

 enamel by the alcoholic fuchsin method, and in fig. 21 both 

 the prisms and the interprismatic substance were stained 

 with anilin violet. 



Leon Williams says : ' In no instance have I ever been 

 able to demonstrate the presence of stainable matter, other 

 than bacteria, in human enamel.' The author has, however, 



FIG. 21. Young enamel (longitudinal) stained with anilin violet (Weil pro- 

 cess). Both prisms and interprismatic substance are stained. ( X 800.) 



many preparations showing the penetration of the stain 

 into the tubes in the enamel which are prolonged from the 

 dentine, into the spindle-like bodies at the margin of the 

 dentine, and also in some places into the interprismatic 

 substance. 1 



Professor Walkhoff (20), in a recent paper, concludes from 

 an examination of many specimens of enamel i^hat there 

 is scarcely a single case among civilized man in ' which he 

 cannot find considerable faults of structure in the growth 



1 Von Ebner succeeded in staining young enamel, but he did not' notice 

 any true differential staining between the prisms and the cement sub- 

 stance ; sometimes one, sometimes the other, was more fully stained. 

 He made use in these experiments of unbleached shellac, the erythrolaccine 

 staining the prisms and interprismatic substance. The method is described 

 on p. 28 of his paper (6 a). 



