122 PROF. DR. L. BOLK 



liiigiuil side of which an accessory, tubercle protrudes. This 

 tubercle may be termed a distomolar cusp because it is nothing 

 else than the distomolar fused by means of its root with the 

 normal third molar. In figure 20 a corresponding case in the 

 upper jaw is represented. By its entirely different situation it 

 is very easy to distinguish a paramolar from a distomolar cusp, 

 for as pointed out, the j^aramolar is always in close relation 

 with the anterior buccal border of the molar, whereas the disto- 

 molar is fused with the palatal side of the same. 



After this brief description of the additional elements occur- 

 ring in the molar region of man we return to our starting point. 

 The purpose of the research for typical additional teeth in the 

 molar region was to collect sufficient data for a personal judg- 

 ment as to the nature of our functional teeth. For it is clear in 

 connection with this problem that no hypothesis is acceptable, 

 except one in which all derivatives of the dental lamina are 

 reckoned with; and I hope to have demonstrated that the para- 

 molars, though anomalous elements in human denture, are not 

 unusual i)roducts of this lamina, without any developmental 

 significance, but that they are regular elements. The}^ must be 

 considered as teeth which functioned at one time in an earlier, 

 long-past phase of the evolution of human dentition, but after- 

 wards became rudimentary and were eliminated from the molar 

 row. And, considering that, save in some Marsupials, the num- 

 ber of molars in all recent mammals does not surpass three, 

 these paramolars evidently represent teeth which functioned 

 in our ancestral forms of the mesozoic period. 



The possibility that they are only casual i:)roducts of the 

 dental lamina must be firmly rejected; for their topographical 

 situation (their relationship to the normal molars), is of such 

 regularity and invariability, as can only occur with essential, 

 originally normal products of the dental lamina, formerly produced 

 on well defined spots, in accordance with the other elements. 

 jVnd in the making up of a scheme of all teeth produced by the 

 molar region of our dental lamina, the paramolars require to be 

 considered as elements of equal value to the molars. 



c 



