The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1908-08-01
TALES TOLD BY TEETH.
Remarkable Facts About the Incis-

Il L
Remarkable Facts About the Incis-
ors Of Men and Animals.
Teeth are not bones, as most people
imagine them to be. Though they are
attached to the skeleton, they are not
a part OF it. They develop from the
iermis, or skin, and are, as rule. made
ND of three Observation-Disclosures" zee
ment" and "enamel," says London An
swers.
Enamel is the hardest Of all animal
substances 1t actually contains more
tEan 96 parts in 100 of mineral matter
mainly phosphate of lime bone
contains only go per cent. This ac-
counts for the fact that teeth are more
indestructible than any other part OF
animal frame.
What is more wonderful still is that
the tooth is the keynote Of the frame.
An expert anatomist needs only to be
shown tooth or two In order to re-
construct from them the animal from
whose jaw they. originally came-and
this although the animal itself has been
dead ten million years, and its kind ex-
tinct for almost as long.
Not only do the teeth show what
their owner looked like, whether 1t was
animal, lizard, fish or bird-some ex-
tinct birds used to possess teeth-but
study of set Of these useful organs
will show what the creature used to
feed on, and, incidentally, tell great
deal about its life and habits.
Teeth vary in form and number more
than any other animal organs. An ele-
plant, for instance, has usually only
fourth teeth in use besides his tllsks.
But they are big enough to make up in
size what they lack in number. The
teeth of the elephant tribe are so diff
ferent from those of other animals that,
when fossil is dug up, the geologist
can at once be certain to what race Of
creatures is belonged, and is able to re-
construct the gigantic mastodon, or
hairy mammoth, in whose jaw 1t orig
inally grew.
At the other end of the scale, in point
Of number of teeth, comes the snail. The
common garden snail is the happy pos
SCISSOR of 135 rows each of 105 teeth, or
matter Of 14,175 teeth in all.
The teeth of fish vary more greatly
than those Of any other known crea-
lures. Their teeth are not divided INTO
incisors, CANNES and mOlars, as In an
imals, but almost every different kind
Of fish has differently shaped teeth.
Sharks, for instance, have several rows
of teeth, all extremely sharp-pointed.
The front row stands up erect, but those
behind are more or less recumbent
There is never any difficulty in identi.
flying sharks tooth.
Most fish have a great number of
teeth. The dolphin, for instance, Ios-
sesses 200, but there are others-llke
the sturgeon-which have no teeth at
ALL Almost all fish-sharks espe ,lally
shed their teeth frequently and grow
new ones to replace them.
Snakes teeth-the poison-fangs, that
fs-have the same popularity. There
are always fresh ones in reserve to take
the place of those which get broken. A
rattlesnake may have as many as ten
Of these reserve teeth. Snakes fangs
are very sharp, very elastic, and, con-
trary to common belief, never hollow,
but provided with a groove, along
which the poison flies.
The sharp tusks Of the crocodile and
all fesh-eating lizards need only to be
seen once to be easily identified after
ward. Some reptiles are toothless.
These are tortoises, turtles and toads.
A frog may easily be distinguished
from toad by the fact that the latter
has no teeth while the former has teeth
In the upper jaw, but none in the lower.