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VI. On the mode in which Musket-Bullets and other Foreign Bodies become inclosed in the Ivory of the Tusks of the Elephant

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 January 2013

John Goodsir Esq.
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Extract

Musket-Bullets are occasionally found inclosed in ivory, and every anatomical museum contains specimens of this kind. Why bullets should be so frequently met with in this situation, it is not easy to say; the head of the animal appears to be generally aimed at, and foreign bodies when they enter the tusks, instead of being removed in the usual manner, are retained by the process, an investigation of which is to form the subject of the present paper.

Type
Transactions
Information
Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of The Royal Society of Edinburgh , Volume 15 , Issue 1 , 1844 , pp. 93 - 100
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 1844

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References

page 93 note * We are indebted for the specimens to the liberality of Mr Rodgers of Sheffield, who transmitted to Sir John Robison for examination, these as well as many other most remarkable examples of wounded and diseased tusks.

page 97 note * Cuvier described this species of dental tissue in the tusk of the walrus, and compared it to pudding-stone. Dr Knox, in the paper to which I have referred in the text, affirmed that, in addition to the cement, enamel, and ivory, a fourth substance, namely, the substance described by Cuvier, entered into the formation of many teeth. He stated that, in the teeth of certain fishes, this substance, or a tissue closely allied to it, constituted the greater part of their mass; the other three elements having disappeared or become greatly diminished in bulk or importance. Retzius has accurately described the microscopic structure of this class of dental substances, as existing in different animals. Mr Owen has extended and confirmed the observations of Retzius. Lastly, to Mr A. Nasmyth belongs the merit of having pointed out the resemblance which this kind of substance (which he denominates ossified pulp) bears to diseased ivory in the tusks of the elephant, and still more closely to the substance which fills the pulp cavity of the aged human tooth. In ignorance of Dr Knox's previous observations, he announced this kind of ivory as a fourth dental substance.

page 98 note * Phil. Trans. 1801.