Dec. 21, 1876] 



NATURE 



161 



T- 



ANATOMY OF THE TEETH ^ 

 'O the histologist, the zoologist, and the human ana- 

 tomist the teeth are organs of considerable interest, 

 from the points of view of their minute structure, their deve- 

 lopment, together -with, their variations, as well as from the 

 diseases to which they are subject ; and yet our literature 

 has been deficient in a work on " Dental Anatomy, Human 

 and Comparative." Text-books, such as Quain and 

 Sharpey's " Anatomy," give us full information with refer- 

 ence to their structure, form, and development in man, 

 whilst in Owen's superb monograph on " Odontography," 

 as in his " Anatomy of Vertebrated Animals," their zoolo- 

 gical aspect is treated of in detail. Mr. Charles S. Tomes 

 has filled the deficiency in the volume under considera- 

 tion, in a manner so satisfactory that we feel assured that 

 his work will take a high place among Messrs. Churchill's 

 valuable " Manuals." 



For some years past Mr. Tomes,''following his father's 

 footsteps, has been carefully investigating the structure 

 and development of the teeth, not so much in man as in 

 the lower vertebrata ; and his results have been published 

 in the Proceeding's of the Odontological Society, the 

 Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science, the Transac- 

 tions of the Royal Society, and elsewhere. In the work 

 before us these results, many of them of considerable im- 

 portance, are incorporated in the sections to which they 

 refer, the book itself being an excellent epitome of our 

 present knowledge of the development and structure of 

 the teeth in man and the lower animals. 



It is evident to all that a thorough acquaintance with 

 comparative odontology cannot be obtained by anyone 

 not familiar with the structure and development of the 



« " A Manual of Dental Anatomy, Human and Comparative." By C. S. 

 Tomes, M.A. (J. and A. ChurchUl, 187C ) 



teeth. In the same way the facilities for investigating 

 histological and embryological odontology are much 

 enhanced by a knowledge of the comparative anatomy of 

 the organs studied, as is the human dentition, although 

 we would be among the last to make it a sine qud non 

 that our dentist should be thoroughly informed on this 

 large view of the subject. It is, therefore, on these acr 

 counts that Mr. Tomes's Manual will appeal to more th aii 

 one class of student. 

 The work commences with an account of the teeth of 



s--" 



man and of the bones with which they are associated, " as 

 being the standard with which the student is hkely, con- 

 sciously or unconsciously, to compare those other forms 

 with which he afterwards becomes acquainted." The 

 dental tissues are next described, followed by the deve- 

 lopment and eruption of the teeth, the last two hundred 

 pages being devoted to the zoological aspect of the 

 subject. 



The htiman teeth h^ve been studied so thoroughly that 

 Mr. Tomes has nothing special^ to tell us with reference 



Fig. 3. 



to them. As to their arrangement, his experience con- 

 firms the fact that, from the parabolic curve in which they 

 are arranged in the typical human jaws, tending to 

 squarish in the lowest races, " a deviation in the opposite 

 direction is daily becoming more common in the most 

 highly civilised races, resulting in a contour to which in 

 extreme cases the name of V-shaped maxilla is applied." 

 On the subject of the histology of the dental tissues v/e 

 notice several interesting points. With reference to the 

 presence of enamel in the lower vertebrata, we are told 



