312 GENERAL VIEWS ON ARCHAEOLOGY. 



stone, seems, in view of its analogies with the Laplander, to have 

 been the most diminutive, and doubtless the weakest. We miss the 

 bony framework of the race of the bronze epoch, but we have a measure 

 of its hand in the handles of its swords, and we know how small are 

 the proportions of these. 1 As the race of the bronze epoch evidently 

 overcame that of the stone, and supplanted it, it is likely that it was 

 superior to it, not only in the employment of metal, but also in the 

 joint advantages of its civilization and its physical development. With 

 iron there finally appears a large, strong race, as is denoted by the 

 skeletons and arms. With the general progress of civilization, there 

 has, therefore, been a progressive physical improvement of humanity. 



People frequently marvel at the sight of certain gigantic works of 

 antiquity, and they fancy that the ancient races must have been 

 stronger than ours. But a little reflection will easily make us perceive 

 the difference between the effects of patience, combined with skill, 

 and the results of strength guided by knowledge ; which, however, 

 does not exclude either patience or skill. There are scarcely any 

 ancient constructions of man, that are proportionally of greater mag- 

 nitude, than certain ant hills. On the other hand, the great pyramid 

 of Cheops is a wonder more likely to be admired than a chronometer, 

 but in reality less astonishing, even considering the nature of the forces 

 made use of in its execution. 2 



A ncient Manner of Eating. Let us describe here, apropos to the 

 human race, an interesting peculiarity of the primitive population of 

 Denmark. Modern nations use their incisive teeth to sever and cut 

 as with scizzors. The front teeth lap over each other for this purpose, 

 and there results necessarily a wearing of these teeth of a correspond- 

 ing nature, and all the more easily recognizable as the individual is 

 more advanced in life. Not only do the incisive teeth suffer from this 

 manner of eating, but as in the region of the molars the two jaws cor- 

 respond exactly Avith each other ; that is to say, that the upper molars 

 bear directly on the inferior ones, it follows hence, that the two jaws 

 themselves cross each other at two points, namely, at the two angles 

 of the mouth ; whence a more or less irregular wearing away at these 

 points. Now, when we examine attentively well-preserved sets of 

 teeth of the age of stone in Denmark, that have belonged to individ- 

 uals who have outlived at least the age of fifty, we find that the two 

 jaws bear directly and wholly one on the other. The masticating sur- 

 face of the upper jaw fits perfectly that of the lower jaw, and so all 

 round the set of teeth. The incisive teeth do not lap over each other, 

 but impinge on each other at their summits like the molars, and are, 

 therefore, worn away quite differently from ours. 3 At the same time 



1 The same thing is observable nowadays among the Hindoos. The handle of their 

 swords is too small for the hands of the English. Pritchard. The Natural History of 

 Man, 1843, vol. I, p. 129. 



2 Consider the blast furnaces, tilt hammers, the rolling mills, with their accessories of 

 steam and other engines, serving to prepare the materials and the instruments used by the 

 watchmaker. 



3 There are exceptional persons who now use their teeth in the ancient way. Cuvier dis- 

 covered the same modi' of usin^ the teeth among the ancient Egyptians. He says : "The 

 incisive tecih of the mummies are all truncated, and with flat coronals." Comparative An- 



