MNATOMICAL PECULIARITIES OF TEETH. 205 
consideration of such cases has induced me to believe 
that these aberrant tusks may be regarded as arising 
in the first instance as overgrowths, and that such 
malformations being frequently repeated the tendency 
has been transmitted to the offspring and eventually 
perpetuated as a normal character of the male. 
The various steps of such a process may be studied 
in the pig tribe. In the wild boar the upper tusk pro- 
jects about an inch from beneath the labial folds and 
curves slightly upwards ; in the wart hogs it is much 
larger and may attain a length of several inches or 
more: in babirussa it is so strongly curved that instead 
of emerging from beneath the lips it directly pierces 
them. The transfixion of the skin covering the upper 
jaw by an abnormal tusk was illustrated in a striking 
way in the case of the celebrated African elephant 
Jumbo, During fits of bad temper Jumbo often 
damaged the tusks by contact with the walls of the 
den, and at last the pulp chambers became exposed, 
ending in alveolar abscesses of great magnitude. The 
constitutional disturbance caused by the suppuration 
would in all probability have ended fatally but for the 
undaunted bravery, skill, and ingenuity of Mr. A. D. 
Bartlett, who successfully attacked the elephant, and 
opened the abscesses through the cheek. It was through 
the incisions made for this purpose that the damaged 
tusks finally emerged, thus explaining why Jumbo’s tusks 
projected through the cheeks instead of issuing from 
beneath the lips, as in elephants generally. 
The tusks of elephants, from their large size, are liable 
to certain injuries which could scarcely occur in a smaller 
