Note 115 — Chapter XV
Reading edition
On the surface of the tooth there is sometimes deposited a substance termed the tartar of the teeth. It frequently assumes a yellow colour, with a smooth surface, in the ox and the sheep, and has been ignorantly considered as gold derived from the pasture. It is merely a precipitation from the saliva. Berzelius found it to consist of earthy phosphate, 79.0; mucus not yet decomposed, 12.5; peculiar salinary matter, 1.0; and animal matter, soluble in muriatic acid, 7.5 = 100.0.—An. Phil. vol. ii. p. 381.—Quoted in Fleming’s Philosophy of Zoology, vol. ii. p. 166.