Dr. Prices supposed that dentists would know if any changes took places in a patient's blood when a dental infection was present, but found no reports in scientific literature on that subject. This led him to do exhaustive blood studies of patients and animals to determine the side effects of root canal infections.

Thousands of blood tests on patients and animals Infected by root filled teeth showed? Lymphocytes(white blood cells) increased in humans and increased 58 percent in rabbits. Polymorphonuclear leukocytes, a form of white blood cells, decreased in humans and in animals to 33 percent less than normal. Hemoglobin changed very little, either up or down. Hemophilia, a tendency to hemorrhage, occured frequently in rabbits.

Increased amounts of sugar were found in the blood. In some rabbits, higher amounts of ionic calcium were found; but in most rabbits, calcium was lower. resulting in 15 to 20 different pathologic conditions. There was increased uric acid and nitrogen retention. Alkaline reserves decreased, resulting in acidosis. Some patients and all animals lost weight.

Patients suffering rheumatic disease often experienced a withering away of their tissues.

Patients with pyorrhea pockets loaded with pus suffered severe weight loss, as did animals ino- culated with diluted solutions of the crushed pyorrhetic teeth that had all the bacteria filtered out. This demonstrated dramatically that the toxins of the bacteria, rather than bacteria itself, caused the weight loss and death of the animals.

Should you think this may have been an accidental or occasional occurance, this study involved 667 rabbit inoculations.