The Yazoo sentinel. (Yazoo City, Miss.) 1878-1916, 1891-05-28
FACTS ABOUT TEETH.
MAN NOT A CARNIvoRoUs AMI
NAL BY NATURE.

i
"You will often hear il said that mai
IS by nature carnivorous animal. as
shown by the incisors or so-called Ca
nine teeth with which he is provided
but i is not true. Human beings ar
carnivorous only by habit, and rot b,
nature" II was Osteologist Lucas Of TIL
Smithsonian Institution who said 50 70
writer for the Star, and he added:
''lou see it is always from an animali
teeth that the diet intended for it bl
nature is judged. But the fact that /
has incisors does not prove that it 4
carnivorous. There are plenty of purely
yegelable-eating beasts which have
well-deyeloped incisors. Take the mon
key, for example. Monkeys incisors are
much more developed than those of man,
but they are exclusively fruit eaters. the
incisors being merely useful for fighting.
We, who are descended from anthro.
poid apes, still have the canine teeth,
but for the reason that we no longer
employ them for combatiye 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,
Judging 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.
= Il is by the teeth of mammals that
they arc most readily classified, inasmuch
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 determined are not the
incisors, but the molars or grinders. A
mammal usually has several kinds of teeth
in its jaws. Take. the monkey, for ex-
ample. It's front teeth are for catching
up and nipping little things. With
them it catches and kills its parasites, as
does likewise dog. Its incisors are for
lighting, although in the carnivora they
are employed to pierce the flesh deeply
so as to open the veins and bleed the
victim to death. Thus you will find that
a tiger will know by instinct where to
strike the Jugular 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
well as in man, are found the pre- molars.
which are for cutting up what is to be
swallowed, while the molars themselves
perform the grinding process.
"The tusks of an elephant are the
upper incisiors of the beast. They are
not intended for chewing, however. but
for defense. You find all through creation
the most astonishing adaptation OF the
teeth to necessity. You are familiar, of
course, with the mighty ivory lance Of
the narwhal, ten or twelve feet in length
and strong aud sharp enough to be driven
through the side of ship. That lance
is simply the left upper incisor of the
Once in while by freak (
both Of the upper incisors will be devel- I
oped in the narwhaI SO that it is equipped I
ped with two spears instead Of one. The 4
tooth in this case is designed for a
weapon In fighting. The female has no
lance. Look at the swordfish. The en-
tire length of its saw, which is a prolon-.
cation of the nasal process, is fringed
with teeth. Again you have a weapon
merely the manner of the creature being
o strike right and left for the purpose
# wounding its prey In mammals,
however, the teeth are restricted to the
awbones. Lizards and snakes have
hem on the bones Of the palate as we'll.
True bony teeth are peculiar to animals
which have backbones. The most elab
rate dental apparatus known belongs
0 the sea urchin, whose jaws are COM
'osed of forty pieces, moved by forty
eparate muscles. Snails have sort of
ibbon with which they rasp their food
S with a file. Anteaters, though they
re mammals, have no teeth at all but |
hey get there just the same, having no
iced to chew their prey The whale
'one whale is another mammal that has
% teeth, its practice being to swallow /
IS food whole.
THE biggest of fresh water fishes, the ,
arapaima Of the Amazon in South !
America, which grows to six feet in |
sngth, has teeth on its tongue, so that |
he latter resembles theft and is used /
s such. Some kind Of trout also have {
be same popularity. Fishes that swal- !
Nv their prey entire have their teeth so 1
Imported on flexible bases as to bend |
ackward but not forward, in order that I
heir victims shall not escape after they /
ave been once seized. In ages gone BY q
lere were feroeious sharks, such as /
-ould make moutnful of you without t
linking, seventy feet ia length. Plenty f
{ their teeth have been found which v
&c five inches long, whereas the biggest o
the teeth belonging to sharks that b
Iist at the present day are one and o
ali inches long. a
Certain animals have teeth which
tow during all their lives. The rat
Id the squirrel are examples of this.
ur own teeth are developed from pulps
hich are absorbed and disappear after :,
e teeth are grown, but in a rats tooth =
e pulp Is perpetual. and is continually =,
ereting material by which the incisor n
inns length. Therefore the animal is !,
iliged to gnaw all the time to keep the \,
9th ground down to the proper length.
is commonly imagined that the rat -,
cps gnawing from pure cussedness, ~
t such IS not the case. Sometimes il -
opens that the beasts upper and lower ~
risors do not meet properly, so that it a.
unable to gnaw. and its teeth keep NJ
owing around in a spiral. Gases have y
en- known where a rats tooth grew in -
IS manner through its skull So as to :, -
rec the brain and kin the unfortu- -
ie. The biggest teeth / know Of are -
1se Of the mastodon. which we have in =
J shape Of fossils. One advantage :.
out teeth IS that they are harder than
nost anything else in nature and will
4 n VI