Historical studies on the striae of Hunter-Schreger

When the ground section of a human tooth is observed through a microscope, the oblique section, or the cross section, the enamel rod is dark and the vertical section it is light. These striae have been called the bands of Schreger. In his book published in 1961, Professor Fujita quoted a paper presented by Preiswerk (1894) as follows: "Schreger found the striae in 1800 (Rosenmüller's und Isenflamm's Beiträge für die Zergliederungskunst, Bd. I, H. 1, Leipzig), but John Hunter from England reported the same findings earlier. For this reason, such striae were called the bands of Hunter-Schreger in Europe and America. In his paper of 1894, Preiswerk reported that Hunter found the striae in 1780; however, in the second edition of his book, The Natural History of the Human Teeth, published in 1778, Hunter showed an illustration that seemed to be the striae and annotated the illustration. The striae may have been reported even in his first edition (1771), but neither edition of the book is available in Japan." Quoting the first edition of Hunter's book, Hoffmann-Axthelm included the illustration of the striae in his book. Through this book, I found that Professor Fujita's conjecture was correct. Moreover, I recently had an opportunity to read the first and the second editions of John Hunter's book. Accordingly, I am reporting this report.