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diments, we cannot be surprised to meet with such frequent
deformities and varieties as occur amongst them. Though
deviations in the shape or size of their bodies seldom occur,
yet their roots vary considerably, some being much larger
than those commonly met with, others curved in different
directions, or exceeding their usual number.
Eustachius, Jussieux, Fauchard, and other writers, mention
some instances remarkable for the singular position of the
teeth in the jaws. They also speak of having met with a
few cases where two or three of the front teeth, and as many
even of the grinders, were completely joined together by os-
sification. I have met with more than a dozen cases some-
what similar for instance, the bodies and roots of the lateral
temporary incisores and cuspidati joined together, and among
the permanent teeth, the middle and lateral incisores, as also
the lateral incisores and cuspidati. Here it is evident that
both pulps must have been contained in the same investing
membrane or sac, for their ossification is in general so com-
plete, that one hole serves to both for the admission of ves-
sels, &c. In those cases the body of each of the teeth so
conjoined commonly retains its own appropriate form, though
both are completely surrounded by the cortex striatus.
Among the permanent teeth however I have met with one
instance, where one of the middle and lateral incisores
were so intimately united, that on viewing them externally,
they appeared as one large middle incisor, no trace being left
of their having originally two distinct bodies ; but on the in-
ternal surface there is a very marked difference, and each re-
tained nearly its proper shape. Excrescences of the cortex
striatus are very seldom met with ; one singular instance of
it occurred to me, in a patient about seventeen or eighteen
years of age. The right permanent cuspidatus in this per-
son did not appear through the gum until the sixteenth year,