B. II.] THE niSTOKY OF ANIMALS. 31 



is a sting ; it darts forth tee spines with which it ia 

 covered instead of hair, and it utters a noise resembling the 

 united sound of a pipe and a trumpet ; it is not less swift of 

 foot than a stag, and is wild, and devours men. 



11. Man sheds his teeth, and so do other animals, as the 

 horse, the mule, and the ass ; man sheds his front teeth, but no 

 animal sheds the molar teeth ; swine do not shed any of their 

 teeth. About dogs, there is some doubt ; some persons think 

 they do not shed their teeth at all, others that they shed only 

 the canine teeth ; but it has been observed that they do shed 

 their teeth like men : perhaps it has escaped notice, because 

 they do not shed them before the inner ones, which are simi 

 lar, are grown up. 



12. And it is probable that the same takes place in other 

 wild animals, since they are said only to shed their canine 

 teeth. Young dogs are known from old ones by their teeth, 

 for young dogs have sharp white teeth, old dogs have them 

 black and blunted. The horse is in this respect different 

 from all other animals ; for while the teeth in other animals 

 become darker as they grow older, in the horse they become 

 more white. 



13. Those which are called canine teeth are placed between 

 the cutting and the molar teeth, and partake of the nature of 

 both, for they are wide below, but sharp at tiie top. The 

 male has more teeth than the female in mankind, and sheep, 

 and goats, and swine. This has not been observed in other 

 animals. Those persons which have the greatest number of 

 teeth are the longest lived ; those which have them widely 

 separated, smaller, and more scattered, are generally more 

 short lived. 



1-i. The last molar teeth, which are called wisdom teeth, ap 

 pear, both in the male and female about the age of twenty, 

 and some women cut the molar teeth at eighty years of age, 

 causing great pain in the extremity of the jaw, and some 

 men also : this happens with persons who do not cut their 

 wise teeth at the proper auv. 



15. The elephant has four teeth on each side, with which he 

 grinds his food, for he reduces his food very small, like meal. 

 Besides these, he has two tusks : in the male these are large, 

 and turned \ipwards ; in the female they are small, and bent 

 in the contrarv direction. The elephant has teeth as soon 



