Morning journal and courier., 1891-04-14
QUEER FACTS ABOUT TEETH.
Especially Mankfnd's Teeth, and In
cidentally the Teeth of Birds and
RIsheG
TFrom the Washington Star. ]

cidentalIy the Teeth of Birds and
Fishes.
From the Washington Star.
"You will often hear it said that man is
by nature carnivorous animal, as is
shown by the incisors or so-called canine
teeth with which he is provided, but it is
not true Human beings are carnivorous
only by habit, and not by nature" 1t
was Osteologist Lucas, of the Smithsoni-
an, who said 80, and he added:
"You see, it is always from an animals
teeth that the diet intended for it by ma
ture is judged. But the fact that it has
incisors does not prove that it is carnivo-
rous. There are plenty of purely vegeta-
ble-eating beasts which have well-devel-
| oped incisors. Take the monkey, for ex-
ample. Monkeys incisors are much more
| developed than those of man, but they are
| exclusively fruit eaters, the incisors being
useful merely for fighting. We, who are
descended from anthropoid apes, still have
the canine teeth, but, for the reason that
we no longer employ them for combative
purposes, they have become smaller. Man
was originally frugivorous, presumably,
though the time when he first began to eat
meat must have been very far back, judg-
| ing from the remains of extinct mammals
found in the caves among the ashes of his
cooking fires which burned hundreds of
thousands of years ago.
"It is by the teeth of mammals that
they are most readily classified, inasmuch
as the dentition illustrates the food of the
animal and the general habits which neces
sarily depend upon its manner of procur
ing food. The teeth by which these things
| -, x1k &1a h.,
the molars or grinders. A mammal usual
ly has several kinds of teeth in its jaws
Take the monkey, for example. Its from
teeth are for catching up and nipping lit
tie things. With them it catches and kill
its parasites, the feas, as does likewise
dog. Its incisors are for fighting, although
in the carnivora they are employed t,
! pierce the flesh deeply SO as to open tn
veins and bleed the victim to death"
, "Thus you will find that tiger viii
know by instinct where to strike the jugu
lar vein of an OK, of the location of whicl
dare say that you yourself are not yer,
definitely aware. Behind the incisors ii
the monkey, as well as in man, are foun,
: the pre-molars, which are for cutting Vi
, what is to be swallowed, while the molar
} themselves perform the grinding process
1t is really wonderful, you will observe
, how admirably the entire apparatus
adapted for the purpose in view. Yo
find the most remarkable development o
the incisors of CANNES in the extinct So
bre-toothed tiger, contemporary with tn
cave men, which had two knife-shape'
teeth in it's upper jaw SO huge that it oftel
died in consequence of catching them Il
: the lower jaw, being thus unable to clos
: its mouth Each of these weapons had
!. | keen saw on its inner edge.
:. "The tusks of elephant are the uppe
incisors of the beast. They are not in
T tended for chewing, however, but for de
= fence. You find all through creation th
"a most astonishing adaptation of the teet
to necessity. You are familiar, of cours,
I with the mighty ivory lance of the ma,
70 whal, ten or twelve feet in length an
Il strong and sharp enough TO b driys