Recently an intensive study of this subject has been made by Zilva and Wells, which is of special interest because it describes the first beginnings of these lesions, and particularly because we have no knowledge whatsoever of the dental changes which occur in human scurvy. These investigators found a fibroid degeneration of the pulp of the teeth, a pulpar fibrosis. "It is clear at once," they write, "and it is an important fact that no trace of cellular organization, no trace of cell nuclei, no trace of interstitial cement substances can be found anywhere. Nerves, cells, blood-vessels, and odontoblasts have all shared the process of fibrication and are no longer recognizable." These radical changes in the teeth, brought about by a deficiency of antiscorbutic vitamine, were demonstrated not only in guinea-pigs but also in monkeys. In some instances they were found where a histologic examination of the costochondral junctions showed nothing abnormal. "Profound changes were recorded where the scorbutic changes during life were so slight as to be almost unrecognizable," and, they continue, "the mildest degree of scurvy which could just be discovered at the postmortem examination produced well-defined changes in the structure of the teeth." If this work is confirmed, we must consider the teeth as one of the first tissues of the body to be affected by scurvy. The authors quite rightly raise the question whether the teeth of young children may not likewise be injured by a deficiency of antiscorbutic vitamine, whether this may not play a rôle in the dental caries so prevalent among civilized communities. It is evident, they state, that such transient conditions of infantile scurvy as have been described by Hess as "subacute" or "latent" scurvy, may occur more often than is usually suspected, and may reasonably be expected to influence dentition. It seems quite possible that the caries of the permanent teeth is due not only to infantile rickets but also to infantile scurvy.