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148 HUNTER ON THE TEETH.
that there are considerable spaces between them ; which
could not be the case if they were always growing in
thickness.
We might add too, that according to the hypothesis, that
Dens Sapiential should grow to an enormous size backward,
because there it has no check from pressure ; and in people where
the Dens Sapimtyce is wanting in one Jaw, which is very com-
mon, it should grow to an uncommon length in the opposite
Jaw, for the same reason. But neither of these things
happens.
I need hardly take notice, that when a Tooth has lost its
opposite, it will in time become really so much longer than the
rest, as the others grow shorter by abrasion ; and I observe that
the Tooth which is opposite to the empty space, becomes in time
not only longer for the above-mentioned reason, but more
pointed. The apex falls into the void space, and the two sides
are rubbed away against the sides of the two approaching Teeth
next to that space.
The manner of their formation likewise shews that Teeth can-
not grow beyond a certain limited size. To illustrate this I
may observe, that I have often, in the dead body of adults, fomid
the left Cuspiclatus of the Upper-Jaw, with its points scarcely
protruding out of the Alveolar Process, though the Tooth was
completely formed, and longer than the other by the whole
point, which in that other was worn away. This Tooth, at its
first formation, had been deeper in the Jaw than what is com-
mon ; and after it had grown to the ordinary size, it grew no
longer, though it had not the resistance of the opposite Teeth to
set bounds to its increase : yet commonly in these cases the
Tooth continues to project further and further through the Gum
though this is not owing to its growing longer, but to the socket
filling up behind it, and thereby continuing to push it out by
alow degrees.
148 HUNTER ON THE TEETH.
that there are considerable spaces between them ; which
could not be the case if they were always growing in
thickness.
We might add too, that according to the hypothesis, that
Dens Sapiential should grow to an enormous size backward,
because there it has no check from pressure ; and in people where
the Dens Sapimtyce is wanting in one Jaw, which is very com-
mon, it should grow to an uncommon length in the opposite
Jaw, for the same reason. But neither of these things
happens.
I need hardly take notice, that when a Tooth has lost its
opposite, it will in time become really so much longer than the
rest, as the others grow shorter by abrasion ; and I observe that
the Tooth which is opposite to the empty space, becomes in time
not only longer for the above-mentioned reason, but more
pointed. The apex falls into the void space, and the two sides
are rubbed away against the sides of the two approaching Teeth
next to that space.
The manner of their formation likewise shews that Teeth can-
not grow beyond a certain limited size. To illustrate this I
may observe, that I have often, in the dead body of adults, fomid
the left Cuspiclatus of the Upper-Jaw, with its points scarcely
protruding out of the Alveolar Process, though the Tooth was
completely formed, and longer than the other by the whole
point, which in that other was worn away. This Tooth, at its
first formation, had been deeper in the Jaw than what is com-
mon ; and after it had grown to the ordinary size, it grew no
longer, though it had not the resistance of the opposite Teeth to
set bounds to its increase : yet commonly in these cases the
Tooth continues to project further and further through the Gum
though this is not owing to its growing longer, but to the socket
filling up behind it, and thereby continuing to push it out by
alow degrees.
