Mr. Burnett on the Teeth of Hedgehog. 



333 



authors, called, at one time, incisors, and at another canines ; 

 that the canines, in like manner, have been occasionally de- 

 nominated molars ; and again, that even to the same teeth all 

 the three several epithets have been indifferently ascribed. 



Linnaeus 



incisors 



Pennant . 

 Shaw 



Blumenbach 

 Illiger . 

 George Cuvier . 



Frederick Cuver 



Griffiths' Cuvier ; 

 and Desmarest \ 



Specimen 



6°*"I 



canines 

 — 



2 — 2 

 2 — 2 

 4—4 

 — 0° r 3— 3 

 5 — 5 

 3—3 

 3—3 



recumbent. 



molars 



3 — 3 



— i or o- 



1—1 

 2 — 2 



1 — 1 



2 — 2 

 1 — 1 

 0^-0 

 0—0 



1 — 1 



1 - 1 



2 . 2 



4—4 



or 



5 — 5 



4—4 

 4-4 



4 — 4 

 4—4 

 4—4 



5 — 5 



4 — 4 

 4—4 

 4—4 

 7—7 

 7 — 7 



5 — 5 

 4 — 4 

 5—5 



4—4 4—4 



Had these contradictory accounts been published of some 

 rare animal, the paucity of examples submitted to each in- 

 quirer, and the casualties to which all organized beings are 

 liable, might have explained the variations, or, at least, have 

 proffered an excuse for the inconstancy of the accounts ; 

 which now must be confessed to be owing to the questionable 

 characters of the teeth themselves. Still, as the doubt has 

 directed the attention of naturalists especially to this point, it 

 is curious that the same objects should have been so variously 

 described, that the same premises should have led to such 

 different conclusions. 



The dental developement of the hedgehog, when critically 

 and scrupulously examined, is perceived to adumbrate with 

 one system of teeth, the type to be perfected in another ; and 

 this so closely, that perhaps it might, by the captious, still be 

 questioned to which group we should refer them. Superficial 

 observation might be led by the spinous integument to connect 

 them with certain rats, or rather with the porcupine, to which 



Z 2 



