DARWIK OtfLY CORROBORATES HUNTER. S3 



Again, on page 138 of the same volume, Mr. Darwin 



"The early progenitors of man were, as previously 

 stated, probably furnished with great canine teeth ; but 

 as they gradually acquired the habit of using stones, 

 clubs, or other weapons for fighting with their enemies, 

 they would have used their jaws and teeth less and 

 less. In this case the jaws and the teeth would have 

 become reduced in size, as we may feel sure from nu- 

 merous analogous cases."* 



Dr. John Hunter, writing nearly one hundred years 

 before Mr. Darwin's time, says (" The Human Teeth/' 

 p. 29): 



" The use of the cuspidati would seem to be to lay 

 hold of substances, perhaps even living animals. They 

 are not formed for dividing, as the incisors are, nor 

 are they fit for grinding. We may trace in these teeth 

 a similarity in shape, situation, and use, from the most 

 imperfectly carnivorous animal which we believe to 

 be the human species to the most perfectly carnivo- 

 rous, namely, the lion." 



The editor of Dr. Hunter's work, Mr. Thomas Bell, 

 F.RS., comments as follows on the above extract : 



"That our conclusions as to the functions of an 

 organ as it exists in man, when drawn exclusively from 

 analogous structures in the lower animals, will fre- 



* " The jaws, together with their muscles, would then have 

 become reduced through disuse, as would the teeth, through the 

 not well understood principles of correlation and the economy of 

 growth ; for we everywhere see that parts which are no longer 

 of service are reduced in size." "Descent of Man." 



