ON TEETH

AND THEIR AFFECTIONS.

THESIS ONE.

TEETH, called ὀδόντες oduntes by the Greeks, are bones, arranged by Nature in the very cavity of the mouth in a series for uses necessary to the body.

II.
Their substance is solid, and in the part where they crush things, it is very hard and polished; it is somewhat softer near the roots, and it contains marrow within itself, held by fibers in the manner of other bones.

III.
They possess this peculiarity in the meantime, that in infancy and childhood, when their appendages are lost (for they do not lose the whole teeth when they fall out), they grow back again; but in the remaining time of life, they are increased in turn just as much as they are worn down by use, in the same way as nails.

IV.
But as far as the sense of touch is concerned, there is clearly no distinction by which they are separated from other bones.

V.
For, just as in the whole body some sensation is attributed to bones solely by reason of the periosteum the membrane covering the bone by which they are covered:

VI.
So also, and no otherwise, the teeth themselves are to be judged to have sensation, insofar as they are surrounded in their lower part by a certain membrane endowed with most exquisite sensation, and woven from a dilated nerve; which indeed clothes the entire cavity of the sockets.