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their sight, still, comparative anatomy would, perhaps, have
given them more just notions of the Teeth, than of any other
organs of the animal system. Long before a prying curios-
ity, or an anxious thirst for knowledge, had induced their
sages to dissect the bodies of animals to learn their structure,
their bleached bones would have taught them the formation
of their osseous frame : and the teeth of most mamiferous
animals are inserted, nearly in the same manner as those of
man, and must have attracted immediate notice. Again, a pe-
culiarity connected with them, not found in any other organs
of the body, must have taught the first parents of the human
race, that the teeth of their children might be lost and be
This
replaced again, by a larger, firmer, and better set.
taught them their development, and a constant observance
of the crowns and nearly all the bodies of the teeth, made
them familiar with their external appearance. So that it
amounts to almost a certainty, that mankind acquired a gen-
eral knowledge of the teeth as soon if not sooner than of
any other organs. They must, at a very early period, have
appreciated their great utility in masticating their food, and
their immense influence in modifying the expression of the
human countenance ; either by their regularity and perfec-
tion, producing a pleasing appearance
; or, by their irreg-
ularity or deformity, giving it an aspect at once displeasing
and repulsive to the most casual observer. It would have
been seen that they gave the countenance a youthful appear-
ance, whilst their loss indicated the approach of age. Con-
sequently as soon as the human family began to increase to
large societies, and a mutual dependance to be felt, the teeth
became an object of attention ; as materially adding to the
beauty of the countenance, and, thereby, greatly promoting
the power of pleasing. Hence in almost every epoch of
civilization and refinement, and strikingly in proportion to the