Pennsylvania Association of Dental Surgeons. [Volume: 2, Issue: 1, August, 1860, pp. 25-32]

PROCEEDINGS OF DENTAL SOCIETIES.

25

PROCEEDINGS OF DENTAL SOCIETIES.
PENNSYLVANIA ASSOCIATION OF DENTAL SURGEONS.
REPORTED BY GEO. T. BARKER, D.D.S.
A MONTILY meeting of the Association was held on the evening of
July 10th, 1860, at eight o'clock.
Vice-President, Dr. T. L. Buckingham, in the Chair. Present, Drs.
Harris, McQuillen, Garretson, McGrath, Van Osten, Lukens, Townsend,
and Barker.
The subject for discussion being
S A IL IV A,
was opened by Dr. McQuillen, who said, although the salivary secretion
has been the subject of careful and long-continued investigation on the
part of numerous observers, there is still a very decided difference of
opinion among physiologists with regard to some important points connected with its composition, use, etc. Eminent chemists, for instance,
have positively asserted that they found certain constituents present in
this fluid, which others, whose statements are worthy of credence, have
been unable to detect. Of late years it has been regarded as serving a
mechanical, chemical, and dynamical purpose in the animal economy;
quite recently, however, Claude Bernard, one of the greatest experimental
physiologists of the age, after the most elaborate and careful experiments,
assumed and still maintains that the purely mechanical influence formerly
assigned to it is correct, the chemical influence being very slight, if not
altogether absent.
Much of this diversity of opinion is no doubt due to the fact that the
circumstances under which the examinations and experiments have been
performed have differed with the various investigators; with some the
saliva may have been examined immediately after being obtained, while
in other instances it has no doubt been allowed to stand until a marked
change has taken place in its composition. Again, many of the conclusions are based upon saliva obtained from glands whose ducts were connected
with fistulous openings either established by disease, as in man, or for the
purpose of experiment, as in the lower animals-valuable as such data
are they cannot be exclusively relied upon, for the conditions under
which the fluid was obtained certainly cannot be regarded as normal.
To arrive at correct conclusions with regard to human saliva, it should be
obtained under the most favorable circumstances and submitted to immediate examination. In such investigations no one can have more favorable opportunities afforded than those enjoyed by the dental practitioner.
Entertaining views such as these, he had devoted some attention to the
subject, but does not feel prepared at present to offer anything; but would