Year: 1875

DIR. Norman w. Kingsley read before
the New York Chronological Society,
recently, a paper on 1.-The Teeth and
the Brain" of which the following are
the points he made:


In recognizing an antagonism / can
not but be impressed with a similar
contest going on more or less fire.
quently between the mental and physi-
cal development. between the brain
and the body.


Laying aside all cases tha. NAV be
due to an inherited tendency to follow
or e1aggerate some given type, together
with those which are manifestly due to
forces operating only after eruption,
the primary cause, so far as the lndi-
viduaI is concerned, of any general
disturbance of the development of the
permanent teeth, showing itself par
ticularly in their malposition, is directly
traceable to a lesion or lnnervation OF
the trigeminal nerve I; that it is an in
reference more or less prolonged with
one of the prominent functions of that
nerve, and operating at its origin that
while if a precocious or stimulated
brain in infancy urges on and crowds



growth of the Jaws, then a brain OF
larcoliter or power would be likely to
have associated with it retarded den
tition, but with abundance of room. l
examined the mouths of two hundred
inmates of the Asylum for Idiots on
Randall's Island, and 1 did not find a
single pronounced case of N-shaped
dental arch.


e There were very few cases of mar
rowed palatine arch, only three or four
of saddle shaped palates, that is of a
palate approximated, in the bicuspid
region. There was very little irregu-
larity in the position of the teeth very
few teeth were out of line, whatever
that line was, and the malformations
we're generally confined to the six front
teeth. There was no more irregularlty,
decay, loss of teeth, or neglect than
would be found among the same num-
ber of youths taken at random from the
streets. Recently, while spending a
few weeks in Switzerland, l devoted
some time to the examination of the
dental condition of the Cretans, and IN
the asylums and hospitals in Paris.
examined the mouth.o a large number
vi Vic lCSuAeo "SAS - No
way dissimilar to what l found on
Rlndall's Island.


visited one asylum in London, and
there found larger number of N-shaped
arches than 1 had seen In other lnstl-
tutions, perhaps about five per cent,
but l did not see one so pronounced
case as / have treated i'll my private
practice, the patient having full IN
tellectual development. The fact OF
seeing a so much larger number OF de-
formed when visiting the asylum In
London, was less puzzling after L had
learned the fact that nearly all the cases
that had seen were offspring OF the
nobility. No irregularity in the posi-
tion of the dental organs is any evil
dence of idiocy in the individual.


Irregularities of the teeth in child
hood indicate more likely precoclty
of mental development, and possibly
more brilliant intellect in the adult. 1t
does prove disturbed cerebral condi-
ton at some period of the child's his
tory, or, if resulting from hereditary
taint, shows such a condition in the
progenitors which has originated from
like causes, and unless checked Will
become intensified by transmission
under similar surrounding conditions,
and the future history of that family
will be mental degeneracy.