356 STRUCTURE AND ABAPTATTON OF TEETH 



dental caries. It has been so often affirmed that 

 the monkeys in the Zoological Society's Grardens 

 were subject to diseased teeth, that I fully ex- 

 pected to find that those poor animals were vic- 

 tims of this human malady, as they undeniably 

 are of that scourge of our race, consumption, 

 which too often terminates their existence within 

 a limited period. To my surprise, however, after 

 careful scrutiny of many skulls of monkeys which 

 had died in the Society's menagerie, I failed to 

 detect a solitary example of a carious tooth, either 

 in the crowns of the molars or in the approximal 

 surfaces of the teeth, although I found several 

 instances in which they had been split or dislo- 

 cated, by the violence the animals had used in 

 seizing the iron bars of the cage. My statement 

 is supported by Mr. Bartlett, superintendent of 

 the gardens, who assures me he has never known 

 an instance of a truly carious tooth in any of the 

 animals, although a few rare instances of caries 

 have been recorded by other observers. 



May we not, however, reasonably suppose, that 

 were a race of captive monkeys established, the 

 indications of dental disease would be found at 

 the second or third descent, in animals whose 

 health necessarily suffers from the highly artificial 

 conditions of their existence ? 



The wild horse and the rough mountain pony, 

 the shepherd's dog and the wild boar, are exempt 

 from disease in the teeth, while the artificially- 



