184 MICROSCOPIC ANATOMY OF THE TEETH 



the blood-vessels and these tubular prolongations is a delicate 

 tissue continuous with the margins of the concavities, filling 

 up the space between the tubes and the blood-vessels, and 

 the alveoli so formed are occupied by delicate cells with 

 very distinct round nuclei. The blood-vessels, which arise 

 from those in the capsule, terminate in loops just short of 

 the inner margin of the enamel organ (fig. 102). The tubular 

 processes, on the other hand, pass into the stroma which is 

 in connexion with the forming enamel and become blended 



FIG. 102. Sargus ovis. Lower portion of fig. 100. t. Termination of 

 vascular tubes ; s. opening of secreting tubes into stroma ; c. cellular 

 elements between the tubes. The delicate cellular portions shown in figs. 

 101 and 103 have been partially destroyed in cutting the section. ( x 250.) 



with it, but at their outer extremities they do not reach the 

 capsule, their free ends lying between two of the blood-vessels 

 or vascular tubes, as we may more conveniently call them. 



We thus see that we have here a structure in all respects 

 analogous to a secreting organ the cells between the 

 vascular and secreting tubes probably serving to separate 

 the lime salts from the circulating blood in the vascular 

 tubes, and they would be passed by the secreting tubes 

 to the interior of the enamel organ and the forming 

 enamel. 



