Volume 2

Manual of human histology / By A. Kölliker, professor of anatomy and physiology in Wurzberg ; translated and edited by George Busk, F.R.S., and Thomas Huxley, F.R.S.

  • Kölliker, Albert, 1817-1905.
Date:
1853-54
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Manual of human histology / By A. Kölliker, professor of anatomy and physiology in Wurzberg ; translated and edited by George Busk, F.R.S., and Thomas Huxley, F.R.S. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    cavities, like osseous lacuna?, constituting the so-called osteo- dentins of Owen.1 1 [Considerable discrepancies will be met with if we compare the various state- ments of authors who have described the ultimate structure of the dentine. 1. According to Itetzius, the dentine contains cells, but these cells, in his view, are cavities analogous to bone lacunce, in which the dentinal canals terminate. 2. Mr. Nasmyth took a totally different view from this. The matrix, or as he calls it, interfibrous substance of the dentine, is, he says, composed entirely of cells ; but these cells are solid bodies, lie between, and form the boundaries of the canals. His cells and those of Retzius had exactly as much, or as little relation to one another, as the osteal cells of Tomes and De Morgan (to which we have referred in the note to § 107, p. 377, vol. I), have to osseous lacunae. 3. Professor Owen likewise affirms, that the dentine is made up of cells,—his dentinal cells,—which, however, can hardly be identical with Czermak's dentine globules as stated in the text. We find it, in fact, somewhat difficult to under- stand what these dentinal cells are, inasmuch as we are unable to reconcile the various definitions of their nature which may be found in the 'Odontography.' In the first place, at p. 462, it is stated, in a note, that the true dentinal or calcigerous cells include many tubes and intertubular spaces, and it is much more exact to say, that those cells contain a tubular structure, than that the interstitial space is cellu- lar. In perfect accordance with this, we find, on referring to plate 123, fig. 1, which represents a section of human dentine, that the dentinal cells which are marked d'd', are traversed by from seven to eleven dentinal tubules. But at p. 463, the passage in which reference is made to this figure, runs thus : the dentinal cells of the human tooth are subcircular, about jg'^tb. of an inch in diameter. They seem most numerous from being most conspicuous near theperi- phery of the dentine, as originally described by me in the dentine of the Crocodile. And in the Introduction, p. xlvi, we find: The diameter of the dentinal or cal- cified primary cells of the pulp, is usually one fourth or one half larger than that of the blood discs manifest in them. Now, how is it possible, that a body jg'^th of an inch in diameter, can have passing through it seven tubules, each of which is Tg'crou*^ °f an 1C'1 m diameter ? To say nothing of the circumstance, that these tubules are at the very least tuIouo''^1 of an inch apart. Halve the actual diameter of the tubules and arrange them close together, and they will barely squeeze into ^th of an inch. We conclude, therefore, as the definitions and the figures of these dentinal cells are at variance, that we are not justified in making any definite statement about them. 4. Mr. Tomes asserts in his lectures, that the intertubular tissue is itself made up of minute granules closely united, which pass into those of his granular layer; an opinion which seems to us to. be most nearly in accordance with fact. We may observe, that the dentine globules and interglobular spaces of Czermak, had been previouslyvery carefully figured and described by Mr. Tomes, in his lectures, p. 45. 5. The views of Czermak are stated in the text. Mr. James A. Salter (On certain Appearances occurring in the Dentine, dependent on its mode of Calcification, ' Quarterly Journ. of Mic. Science,' vol. I, p. 252,1853,) has confirmed Czermak's re- sults, and has added some very interesting observations of 11is own. lie considers that the contour lines, which he prefers to call contour markings, may arise from various