32 CRANIA BEITANNIOA. [CHAP. I I I .
many of the mammalia, not excepting the anthropoid apes, by the great lacerating tooth, or
tusk; the two next are the bicuspids, oipremolars, each havuig two cusps or points on the
crown; and the three last are the molars, or grinding teeth, each having four or five cusps on
its quadrilateral crown; the last of these molar teeth is the smallest of the three, and from its
late appearance is called the wise tooth. The peculiar characteristics of the human teeth are that
they are placed in an uninterrupted series, and are of nearly uniform height; not being distinguished
from each other by the intervals, disproportions, inequalities, and great diversities of
other animals.
Professor Owen has noticed some peculiarities ia the teeth of different races which may be
mentioned here. The conical form of the crown of the canine he finds best expressed in the
Melanian races, especially in the Australian. In the form and arrangement of the fangs of the
molar, teeth amongst the Australians there is an approximation to the Chimpanzee and Orang.
" Another weU-marked characteristic of this race is seen in the large proportional size of the
molars, premolars, and canines, but more especiaUy of the molars, and in the almost constant
distinction of the two external fangs of these teeth, ia both jaws *.
Blumenbach considered he had discovered a peculiarity in the incisor teeth of the ancient
Egyptians,—that they were cyUndrical or obtusely conical, rather than formed with the chisellike
cutting edge of these teeth in other races. Dr. Morton showed that this observation was
not correct. The Gottingen Professor also maintained that the same obtuse, almost cylindrical
form of the incisors belonged to the teeth of the Guanches, the ancient inhabitants of Teneriffe.
This opinion, likewise, it may be definitively stated, is without foundationf. StiU Dr. Limd,
the Danish geologist, who considers that he d i s c o v e r e d h u m a n skeletons in the bone-caves
of Brazil, describes the incisors of these people as having an oval upper surface, the long
diameter of which is antero-posterior, in place of the usual chisel-Uke transverse edge. That the
teeth are subjected to extraordinary mutations amongst savage and imperfectly civUlzed races,
the result of their use for purposes wliieh we effect by implements and machines, and of the
mastication of pulse and various other intractable articles of food, becomes very apparent by the
investigation of ancient crania. Sometimes the molars, and to a less extent the other teeth, are
seen to have undergone various degrees of degi-adation, from the simple wearing of the enamel
to the entire abrasion of the crown of the tooth, the laying open of its internal cavity, and even
the wearing away of the very fangs themselves by constant and laborious grinding. Of aU races
with which our inquiries amongst ancient skulls have made us acquainted, the most frightful
erosion and destruction of the teeth is witnessed in the Guanches. Almost every skiill of more
than adult age bears testimony; to this and in some, evidently not very old, the process has
been carried, either alone, or seconded by some resulting disease, of which there may'be a
question, to an extent nearly incredible. Not only are the teeth entirely worn away, crown and
fangs as we have described, but the alveolar processes have totally disappeared, and the upper
maxilla has been subjected to such deterioration as to leave an osseous layer not thicker than
writing-paper for the lower wall of the antrum liighmorianmn, a great cavity by which the
* Cat. Osteological Series, Museum Eoy. Coll. Surg. Engl.,
p. 829, 1853; and his splendid 'Odontography,' p. 451,
1840-15.
t Mr. Pettigrew, in his excellent 'History of Egyptian
Mummies,' mentions the absence of incisors ia the Guanche
mummy in the Museum of the College of Surgeons, as well as
in his own, and was consequently unable to test the truth of
Blumenbach's view. It must be admitted that incisor teeth
are very rare objects in Guanche skulls. In upwards of sixty
jaws, for which we are obliged to the kindness of Mr. William
Davidson of Santa Cruz, there are not more than six incisors.
These, however, are of the usual scalpriform shape.
CHAP. I I I . ] ANATOMICAL EXPLANATIONS. 3:5
centre of this bone is occupied*. The artificial deterioration of the incisor teeth, which is
effected in some tribes by fihng their cutting edges into acute points like the teeth of a saw, has
not been observed amongst any British tribes; but we shall frequently hereafter meet with
evidences of the hard usage to which the teeth have been subjected in the mastication of pulse
and other tough articles of diet.
The teeth are most important indicia of age. We will therefore state some of the results of
Professor Owen's very careful examination of the successive stages of dentition, as they offer the
most valuable assistance in ascertaining the ages of crania belonging to subjects of early Ufc.
Calcification of the permanent series of teeth commences fii-st in the pulp of the first true molar,
and very soon after, if not simultaneously, in that of the anterior incisor, about five or six months
after birth. The fii-st true molar comes into place and use between the sixth and seventh year,
the first permanent incisor between six and a half years and eight years. The calcification of
the pulp of the lateral incisor and canine commences between eight and nine months after bii-th,
and they cut the gum—the canine quickly foUowing the incisor—between the seventh and
ninth years. Calcification of the fii-st premolar begins at or soon after the second year, that of
the second about a year later, and both premolars have displaced the deciduous molars and comc
into use between eight and ten years. The pulp of the second molar begins to be calcified at
five or six years, and it cuts the gum about the twelfth year to the foui-teenth year, but always
later than the permanent canines and premolars. The thii'd molar or dens sapiens begins
to be calcified about the twelfth year, and usually comes into place at or after twenty years. He
adds, I have described the order in the lower jaw, the teeth of which usually appear earlier
than the corresponding ones abovet-
• Another Island race of the present day, the inhabitants Commission, who has had extensive opportunities of observaof
the Faroe Islands, who possess remarkably fine teeth, pre- tion and unusual means for verifying his observations give,
sent an extraordinarily worn state of these organs. They live the following table as the result
on coarse barley bread made into rolls without yeast, and " Central Incisors developed at 8 years
baked m the hot ashes of peat fires, and on " rast," a putrid Lateral Incisors 9
compound of the flesh of fish, fowl, cetacea, and other mam- First Bicuspids 10
Second Bicuspids ... 11
t Odontography, or a Treatise on the Comparative Ana- Canmes 12 to"l2i years
tomy of the Teeth, p. 175. 1840. Hunter made the order of Second Molars 12i to 14
sequence about one year later, and other anatomists copied " The Teeth a Test of Age, considered with reference to the
hmi. Mr. Saunders, a gentleman connected with the Factory Factory Children," by Edwin Saunders.
(J. B. D.)