Horses' teeth : a treatise on their mode of development, anatomy, microscopy, pathology, and dentistry; compared with the teeth of many other land and marine animals, both living and extinct ; with a vocabulary and copious extracts from the works of odontologists and veterinarians / by William H. Clarke.

  • Clarke, William H.
Date:
1893
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Horses' teeth : a treatise on their mode of development, anatomy, microscopy, pathology, and dentistry; compared with the teeth of many other land and marine animals, both living and extinct ; with a vocabulary and copious extracts from the works of odontologists and veterinarians / by William H. Clarke. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    and number of the cavities themselves. In the complex grinders of the elephant, the masked boar, and the copybara, the cement, which forms nearly half the mass of the tooth, wears down sooner than the dentine. “ The enamel is the hardest constituent of a tooth, and, consequently, the hardest of animal tissues; but it consists, like the other dental substances, of earthy matter arranged by organic forces in an animal matrix. Here, however, the earth is mainly contained in the canals of the animal membrane, and, in mammals and reptiles, completely fills those canals, which are com- paratively wide, whilst their parietes are of extreme tenuity. The hardening salts of the enamel are not only present in far greater proportion than in the den- tine and cement, but, in some animals, are peculiarly distinguished by the presence of the fluate of lime.” Again Prof. Owen says Anat. of Vert.” vol. i, pp. 359-60); “ Teeth vary in number, size, form, structure, modi- fications of tissue, position, and mode of attachment in different animals. They are principally adapted for seizing, tearing, dividing, pounding, or grinding the food. In some animals they are modified to serve as weapons of offense and defense; in others, as aids in locomotion, means of anchorage, instruments for up^ rooting or cutting down trees, or for transport and working of building materials. They are characteristic of age and sex, and in man they have secondary rela- tions subservient to beauty and to speech. “Teeth are always most intimately related to the food and habits of the animal, and are therefore highly