Page 86 - My FlipBook
P. 86




70 HUNTER ON THE TEETH.
Upper-Jaw covers more than half of the second, and more than
the half of the Cuspidatus of the Under-Jaw.
The edges of the Incisor people, become blunt and thicker ; and in others they sharpen
one another, and become thinner.
(/)
OF THE CUSPIDATUS.
The Cuspidatus is the next after the Incisores in each Jaw
;
so that there are four of them in all. (g) They are in general

(/) In barbarous and semi-civilised races, the incisors and canines
become excessively worn down by the rough work to which they are
put. The Esquimaux, the Fuegians, and the Oceanic nations, including
both Malayo-Polynesian and Negrito varieties, exemplify remarkably
the effects of attrition on these teeth. The same condition is frequently
seen in Anglo-Saxon and Early British crania. The appearance of
wearing down of these teeth is also very remarkable in many Ancient
Egyptian and Guancbe mummies. Blumenbach describes the in-
cisors in Egyptian mummies as thick and round— not, as usual,
flattened into edges, but resembling truncated cones ; and the cus-
pidati are not pointed, but broad and flat on the masticating
surface, like the neighbouring bicuspides. Mr Lawrence, who inves-
tigated the subject, came to the conclusion that this condition
did not depend on any natural variety ; and an examination of
the teeth in two mummies containing the remains of children whose
death had occurred between the completion and loosening of the first
set of teeth, instituted by Dr Prichard and Mr Estlin, proved that
the original conformation of the teeth in the Ancient Egyptian was in
exact accordance with the normal type. There is, it may be added, no
difference in the characters of the incisive teeth in the varieties of Man.
In the Negro races, they are usually large, broad, and thick ; but they
are not of greater absolute dimensions than in numerous individuals
among the leucous and xanthous varieties. (1)]
{rf) [The term canine has been already limited to that tooth in the
superior maxillary bone, which is situated at or near to the suture
between it and the premaxillary, and in the lower jaw to that
tooth which, in opposing the upper canine, passes in front of it when
the mouth is closed. Neither the insectivorous or phyllophagous
Bruta possess true canines. The two-toed sloth (Cholcepus didactylus),
however, differs from the other genera of the order, in having the first
(1) Lawrence, History of Man, 9th edit., p. 260 ; Prichard, Physical
History of Mankind, vol. ii., p. 249 ; Dental Rev., loc. cit.
   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91