274 A MANUAL OF DENTAL ANATOMY. 



examples of hornless deer furnished with canine teeth are to 

 be found in Swinhoe's water-deer (Hydropotes inermis) and in 

 the Elaphodus cephalophus (which has very small antlers), 

 a Chinese deer more recently discovered, and in the Tragu- 

 lidce. It is obvious that males furnished with weapons 

 more powerful than their fellows, will be more likely to 



FIG. 115 ( J ). 



prove victorious in their battles, to drive away the other 

 males, to monopolise the herd of females, and so to transmit 

 their own peculiarities to offspring, which will again be 

 favoured in the same way. Thus it is very easy to see how, 

 amongst gregarious animals, the development of teeth 

 serving as sexual weapons is likely to be favoured, genera- 

 tion after generation, until canines as highly specialised as 

 those of the musk-deer, or the wild boar, are attained to. 



It will suffice to indicate to the reader that he must be 

 prepared to find that the teeth are profoundly susceptible 

 of modification, but that, amid all their varied forms, the 

 evidences of descent from ancestors whose teeth departed 

 less from the typical mammalian dentition are clearly trace- 

 able by the existence of rudimentary teeth and other such 



(!) Cranium of Moschus, showing the long canine tooth. 



