The etiology of osseous deformities of the head, face, jaws and teeth.

  • Talbot, Eugene S. (Eugene Solomon), 1847-1924.
Date:
1894
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The etiology of osseous deformities of the head, face, jaws and teeth. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

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    not be overtaxed, and that the dental process of attempting to build up the organic instruments and cultivate the mental faculties at the same time is a matter almost impossible to accomplish. In British Journal of Dental Science of 1864 an extract of George Catlin's ''Breath of Life is given. In this he states that malformations of teeth are due to keeping the mouth open, as civilized man is the only animal who keeps his mouth open during sleep. Mr. Mummery and Mr. Nichols made extensive observa- tions in 1860 on the teeth of savage races. They report that irregularities of the teeth and contracted jaws were rare. Mr. Nichols found but one case of slight irregularity among the thousands of Indians and Chinese which he examined. Messrs. Coleman and Cartwright examined a large number of skulls in the crypt of Hythe Church in Kent. These were very old, though their history is not known definitely. All of them had well-developed jaws and alveolar arches, and the teeth that were still present were remarkably regular. About 1864 Mr. Samuel Cartwright read an able paper before the Odontological Society of Great Britain. In this he expresses his views that irregularities result from selective breeding; that they are both congenital and hereditary; that there is very little increase in the anterior part of the jaw after eight or ten years; that if the temporary teeth were to remain the jaws would not change from those of childhood; that in all cases of irregularity the maxillae are more or less altered in proportion of development, whilst the teeth main- tain, in regard to their size, an average development. Mr. Hepburn, in Irregularities of Teeth and Their Treatment, 1870, says: Contracted maxill8e and alveoli are the result of artificial life and other causes attendant on civilization. Ethnologists affirm that with the advance of civilization, there is decrease in the size of the facial and maxillary bones. Deformity is also attributed to cross- breeding. Among comparatively recent works on irregularities, that by Kingsley on Oral Deformities is one of the most im-