THE TEETH LIVI:N"G ORGANISMS. XXIX 



any part of a living body." Mr. Bell tlius concludes 

 a note on tlie above case of transplanting: 



" The experiment lias an interest attached to it far 

 more important than its having given rise to the tem- 

 porary adoption of an objectionable operation. In the 

 result of this experiment may be found an interesting 

 collateral argument in favor of the organized structure 

 of the teeth, and their actual living connection with 

 the body. The vessels of the tooth, we are told, were 

 well injected, and the external surface adhered everj^- 

 where to the comb by vessels. To what purpose are 

 these vessels formed, what object can be possibly ful- 

 filled by the existence of a vascular pulp in the internal 

 cavity, and a vascular periosteum covering the external 

 surface — so obviously vascular that it was -well injected 

 from the vessels of a cock's comb, into which it had 

 been transplanted — unless they are intended to nourish 

 the bony substance of which the tooth consists, and to 

 form the medium of its connection with the general 

 system ?'' 



Prof. Richard Owen says (" Odontography," vol. i, 

 p. 470) : 



" The saving of material is the least of the benefits 

 gained by this tubular structure of the dentine. The 

 vitality of the tissue, which Hunter recognized so 

 forcibly, but which, being equally convinced of the 

 noil- vascularity of the tissue, he was unable to explain 

 — * willing rather to enunciate an apparent paradox or 

 be taunted with dilemma, than yield one iota of either 

 of his convictions'* — is explicable by the possible and 



*Prof. Owen quotes from Bell's " notes" in Hunter's "Humau 

 Teeth." 



