IN GENERAL. 115 



absolutely exclusive subsistence of canines to be 

 animal food; and tbis law, witb its modifications, 

 is so constant, tbat tbe nature of the food of mam- 

 malia may be ascertained witb certainty by an in- 

 spection of the structure of the teeth alone. We 

 may further observe from the teeth of canines, that 

 the carnassiers and false molars eiBTecting only a 

 coarse imperfect division of their nutriment, the 

 animals so constituted must have a tendency to 

 subsist on putrescent flesh and broken bones, to 

 gorge with more avidity than selection, and conse- 

 quently to suffer alternately from the lethargy of 

 indigestion and from protracted abstinence. Mr 

 J. E. Gray has observed, respecting the milk teeth 

 of young dogs, that the camassier is provided with 

 a small internal central lobe, as in other carnivora, 

 whilst the same tooth in the permanent set always 

 presents a large anterior lobe. In the growth of 

 the animal, the anterior part of the jaws alone 

 increases in length, so that the camassier continues 

 as near the fulcrum of the lever as before; and 

 this precaution of Nature seems to be a further 

 proof of her care, because, as the animals in ques- 

 tion draw a part of their sustenance from the bones 

 they masticate, if the principal teeth used to break 

 them were not retained nearest the angle of the 

 mouth, there would not be sufficient muscular power 

 to effect that purpose. 



There is, however, some slight variation in the 

 teeth of the Buansa, or Canis primcevtis of Hodgson, 

 in whose lower jaw the second tubercular tooth is con- 



