PREFACE. 



The present Work includes the substance of the Lectures on 

 the Comparative Anatomy and Physiology of the Teeth, which 

 formed part of the Hunterian Courses delivered at the Royal College 

 of Surgeons in the years 1837, 1838, and 1839. In the first of 

 these courses the teeth were considered in their relation to the 

 Osseous System, and the intimate structure of their component 

 tissues was more especially treated of: in the second, they were 

 regarded as parts of the Digestive System, and, besides their structure, 

 their various configurations and proportions, in subserviency to the 

 habits and food of the different species, were described : in the third, 

 the development of the Teeth was considered in connection with 

 that of the epidermal appendages of the Tegumentary System, in 

 consequence of a close analogy in the form, structure, temporary 

 duration, and reproduction of the formative matrix. 



The views of the structure and development of the Teeth, and 

 the consequent deductions as to their place in the system of 

 tissues, their physiological relations, and their value as zoological 

 characters, advanced in those Lectures and in contemporary publica- 

 tions,* are more fully and connectedly treated of in the following 

 pages. 



Like the other subjects of the Hunterian Lectures, and in accord- 



* 'Report of the British Association,' vol. vii, 1838, p. 135. * Coraptes Rendus de 

 rAcademie des Sciences,' 4to. 1839, p. 784. 



