22 Transactions. — Zoology. 



incisor or the premolar teeth. Professor EoUeston* has noted 

 this condition in several of the skulls from British barrows 

 examined by him — skulls belonging to a people whose habits 

 in many respects, in all probability, closely resembled those of 

 the Maoris. Most of his instances occurred in female skulls. 

 All mine were met with in males. 



The third molars are, as a rule, not ground, or only very 

 slightly so ; and the second molars are usually not much 

 worn ; but all the other teeth, except in one or two skulls, 

 show in a marked degree the wearing-down of the teeth 

 characteristic of races in the condition of the Maoris, fre- 

 quently the whole crowns having been ground away. In 

 several skulls I have observed a curious condition of the first 

 molar teeth of the upper jaw. In its slighter degrees there is 

 merely an oblique wearing of the crown, the outer side being 

 most worn. In the most pronounced cases, however, the 

 pressure from without has caused a gradual dislocation of the 

 tooth inwards, so that it comes to lie transversely in the jaw, 

 with the two outer fangs exposed, and these, with the remain- 

 ing portion of the crown, are ground down so that the pulp- 

 cavity is exposed in its entire length. The chewing-surface 

 so produced is not flat, but rounded from within outwards. 

 The incisor teeth are quite as much worn as the first molars 

 and the premolars, and, instead of cutting-edges, have flattened 

 crowns. Unfortunately they have been lost even more fre- 

 quently than the molar teeth, and in comparatively few cases 

 have I been able to determine satisfactorily the relation that 

 the upper incisors have had to the lower ; but in some skulls 

 it is clear that the upper teeth do not, as with us, project in 

 front of the lower, but he directly above them, the flatly- 

 ground surfaces of each being in contact. This arrangement 

 has been described by Sir William Turner in Australian skulls. f 



The molar teeth are generally three on each side, or, rather, 

 have been so during life, as, of course, many have been lost 

 after death, and many more, though once present, have been 

 lost during life from old age or other causes. In fifteen skulls, 

 however, 1 have been unable to find any trace of a third molar 

 on either side of the superior maxilla, and in another, this tooth, 

 though present on one side, has apparently never been de- 

 veloped on the other. 



Children's Skulls. — The measurements of nine young 

 skulls are given in the tables. Two of these were found at the 

 Chathams ; the others come from different parts of New Zea- 

 land. 



* Scientific papers and addresses ; Ed. Turner, 1884 : " General Kc- 

 marks upon the Series of Preliistoric Crania." 



t " The llelations of the Dentary Arcades in the Crania of Australian 

 Aborigines" : "Journal of Anatomy and Physiology," vol. xxv., 1891. 



