The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1891-04-10
FUNNY FACTS ABOUT TEETH.
some Curious Information Regarding
the Dentition OF Mammals.
ON the Washington Star.


nature carnivorous animal, IS 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.n IL was Os col
ogIst Lucas Of the Smithsonian IntstitutiOl
wno said so to writer for the Star, aud he
added:
You see. it is always from an animals
teeth that the Diet intended + r it by nature
Is Judged. But the fact that Il has incisors
does not prove that it is carnivorous. There
are plenty OF purely yegstable-eating
beasts which have well-deYel0ped inclsors.
Take the monkey, for example. Monkeys
lnclsors are mucn more developed than
those OF man, but they are exclusively fruit
eaters, the 0cisOrs being merely useful for
fighting. We who are descended from
authroUhOid apes, still have the canine
teeth. but, for the reason that we no longer
employ them for c3mba'ive purposes, they
have become smaller. Man was originally
frugivorous, pre- iuTably, though the time
When he first began 70 eas meat must have
been very far back, judging from the re,
mains OF extinct mammals found in the
caves among the ashes of his cooking fires
which burned hundreds of thousands Of
years ago.
ANIMALS CLASSIFIED BY THEIR TEETH.
ut is by the teeth of mammals that they
are most readily classified, iaasmuch as the
dentition illustrates the food of.the animal
and the general habits which necessarily
depend upon its manner of procuring food.
The teeth by which these things are deter
mined are not the incisors, but the molars
or grinders. A mammal usually has sew
eral kinds OF teeth IN its jaws. Take the
monkey, for example. It's front teeth are for
catching up and nipping little things. With
them it catches and kills its parasites. the
heas. as does likewise a dog. Its incisors
are for lighting, although in the carnivora
they are employed to pierce the flesh deeply
50 as to open the veins and bleed the vic
tim to death. Thus you will find that a
tiger will know by instinct where to strike
the Iugular vein of an OK, Of the location of
which dare say that you yourself are not
very definitely aware Behind the incisors
in the monkey, as we'll as in man, are
found the premolars, which are for cutting
up what is to be swallo we'd, while the
molars themselves perform the grinding
process. 1t is really wonderful, you will
observe, how admirably the entire appara-
tus is adapted for the purpose in view. You
find the most remarkable development of
the incisors of CANNES in the extinct saber
toothed tiger contemporary with the cave
men, which had two knife-shaped teeth in
its upper jaw so huge that it often died in
consequence of catching them in the lower
jaw, being thus rendered unable to close its
mouth. Each of these tremend JUS weapons
had keen saw on its inner edge.
THE TUsKs OF AN ELEPHANT.
1.-THE tusks of an elephant are the upper
incisOrs of the beast. The are not intended
for chewing, however, but for defense. You
find all through creation the m st astonish-
ing adoption of the teeth to necessity. You
are familiar, of course, to the mighty ivory
lance of the narwhal, ten or twelve feet in
length and strong and sharp enough to be
driven through the side of the ship. That
lance is simply the left upper incisor of the
mammal. Once in a while, by a freak.
both Of the upper incisors will be developed
in the narwhal so that it is equipped with
two spears instead of one. The tooth i'll
this case is designed for a weapon In fight
ing. The female has no lance. Look at
the sawfiSh The entire length of its saw,
which is aprolongation of the nasal pro-
cess, is fringed with teeth. Again you
have a weapon merely, the manner of the
creature being to strike right and left for
the purpose of wounding It's prey. In mann
mails, however, the teeth are restricted to
the jawbones. Lizards and snakes have
them on the bones Of the palate as well.
True honey teeth are peculiar to animals
which have backbones. The most elaborate
dental apparatus known belongs to the sea
urchin, whose jaws are composed of forty
pieces, moved by forty separate muscles
Snails have a sort of ribbon with which
they rasp their food as with file. Anteat-
ers, though they are mammals, have no
teeth at all; but they get there just the
same, having no need to chew their prey
The whalebone whale is another mammal
that has no teeth, its practice being to swal-
low its food whole.
FISH WITH TEETH ON IT'S TONGUE.
1.-THE biggest of fresh water fishes, the
'arapaima' of the Amazon in South Amer
lea, which grows to six feet in length, has
teeth on its tongue, so that the latter re-
sembles the file and is used as such. Some
kinds of trout also have the same peculiar
ity. Fishes that swallow their prey entire
have their teeth so supported on flexible
bases as to bend backward but not for
ward, in order that their victims shall not
escape after they have been once seized
In ages gone by there were ferocious
sharks, such as would make a mouthful of
you without blinking seventy feet in length.
Plenty of their teeth have been found
which are five inches long, whereas the
biggest of the teeth belonging to sharks
thai exist at the present day are ] a inches
long. Speaking of extinct creatures re-
minds me to say that all of the early birds
those OF early geologic times. that is-had
teeth, with which they captured the early
worms Of the same period. Being de,
scended from reptiles it is natural that they
should possess a dental equipment, but
when they ceased to be carnivorous they
had no teeth any longer.
WHY A RATS TEETH GROW CONTINUALLY.
Certain animals have teeth which grow
during all their lives. The rat and the
squirrel are examples of this Our own
teeth are developed from pulps, which are
absorbed and disappear after the teeth are
grown, but in a rats tooth the pulp is per-
petual and is continually secretiug material
by which the iucisor gains length. There
fore the animal Is obliged to gnaw all the
time to keep the tooth ground down to the
proper le 9Th. 1t is commonly i'm
agined that the rat keeps gnawing from
pure cussedness, but such is not the case.
Sometimes it happens that the beasts upper
ana lower incIsors do not meet properly, so
that it is unable to gnaw, and its eth keep
growing around in a spiral. Cases have
been known where a rats tooth grew in this
manner through its skull so as to pierce the
brain and kill the unfortunate. The big
gest teeth l know of are those of the mas
tOdon, which we have in the shape of fos-
sis. One advantage about teeth is that
they are harder than almost anything else
in nature and will last longer, so that they
may be picked up in an ex client state OF
preservation ages aft er he animals to which
they originally belonged are dead.
you often hear of rendering a rattle
snake harmless b. pulling out its fangs.
"a. Il -