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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    the bony structure. The bones of the cranium are developed to form a convenient protection to the brain, and they are shaped accordingly; the brain, expanding in the prefrontal territory, directly shapes its bony case to fit the requirements. We see the shape of the cranium depending directly on the shape and size of the brain. Not so with the bones of the face. They seem to have a more independent development, which calls into action some different brain force. We notice that there seems to be an arrest of development in the bones of the face at the time when the bulk develop- ment of the brain ceases. This normally should be at about the sixth or seventh year. The arrest of development of the bones begins to appear with the arrest of bulk development of the brain, and only is complete when the brain is completely formed. It has been very properly observed that the human face is actually a result of arrested development. Frontal peculi- arities, common to man and other animals, are retained at birth by the former, and the flat face of the white man may be said to be an arrested foetal condition. The negro has the same foetal appearance until puberty, when prognathism begins to develop. The prognathism of the jaws of the negro is, I believe, due entirely to the excessive development of the inferior maxilla. The rami and the body of the lower jaw, and also the muscles of mastication, are very large and massive as com- pared with those of the white man; while upon the other hand, the superior maxilla is small and more delicate. The constant force of the larger lower jaw upon the upper causes the alveolar process to be carried forward and upward, thus producing prognathism. The law of heredit}^, whereby the offspring tends to reproduce its kind, is here nicely illus- trated. This theory is easily demonstrated by the examina- tion of negro skulls in the Army Medical Museum at Wash- ington and at the College of Surgeons in London. The negro of today, especially those living in the Northern States, pos- sess jaws not unlike those of the white people; the zygomatic arches are smaller, the muscles less dense and rigid, the