The teeth in man and the anthropoid apes : being a review of the various publications on the subject by Professor Owen, F.R.S. and an essay on the teeth in the varieties of man / by Francis C. Webb.

  • Webb, Francis Cornelius.
Date:
[between 1860 and 1869?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The teeth in man and the anthropoid apes : being a review of the various publications on the subject by Professor Owen, F.R.S. and an essay on the teeth in the varieties of man / by Francis C. Webb. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    to the fact that the? Ancient Briton subsisted principally on iiuperfectly-cookocl animal food, Avith instruments for the tlivi- sion of which he was ill provided; the Anglo-Saxons, on the other hand, lived to a great extent on cereals. Probably there is some truth in this, although instances of Anglo-Saxon crania in which the molars are worn very obliquely are not uncommon. But in all the varieties of Man, the manner in which the molar teeth are worn is essentially the same, how- ever in degree the eifects of attrition may dilfer. In the upper molars the internal tubercles, and of them the anterior one first, in the lower molars the external tubercles soonest exhibit the efteets of use. It is interesting to notice that the crania of the more civilized Romans, which have been discovered in England, in the minor degree ki which the molar teeth indicate the marks of rough work, differ from those of the conquered British and ruder Saxons. Caries is common amongst all civilized popula- tions, but it has been from time immemorial peculiarly the scourge of the northern races of Eui'ope. It was a frequent disease amongst the Aboriginal British and Anglo-Saxons ; it is, pro- bably, still more frequent amongst the modern Germans and English, whilst in the Anglo-American population it is said to form the rule rather than the exception. In laying before our readers this necessarily imperfect survey of the dentition in the varieties of Man, we are aware that it may be m'ged that no striking facts have been elicited, no new discoveries have been made—that the results obtained are mainly negative. For om- own part, we shall be contented if the im- pression it may leave on other minds be that which the necessary investigation has produced on our own. We rise from it convinced that a study of human dentition affords an argument of the highest scientific value in favour of the declara- tion which, eighteen hundred years ago, reproved the national assumption of the self-styled Autochthones of Athens— God, that made the world and all things therein, hath made of one ))lood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth. K