THE INFERIOR MAXILLARY. 57 



forming an angle of about 40 with the median line. 

 The sockets of the bicuspids are conical pits, compressed 

 antero-posteriorly. Their sections are oval, the long 

 axis of the oval in the first bicuspid being about 50, 

 that of the second about 60. The vertical axis of the 

 cuspid sockets is directed slightly inward. The sockets 

 for the three molar teeth are each double, a partition of 

 bone passing transversely across the cavity, subdividing 

 it into an anterior and posterior socket ; these are for 

 the lodgment of the roots of the molar teeth. The 

 septum between the roots is thick in the first molar, less 

 so in the second, and thinnest 

 and irregular in the third. Along 

 the median line the partition is 

 bulged, both anteriorly and pos- 

 teriorly ; this is best seen in that 

 across the first molar socket. In 

 all molar sockets the anterior 

 division is broadest and largest. 

 The cavity for the wisdom-tooth 

 is not regular in form. The 

 vertical axes of the molar teeth 



are inclined inward, the second more than the first, and 

 the last are generally most strongly inclined. The object 

 of the inclination of the axes of the lateral sockets of 

 the lower jaw is to enable the lower teeth to articulate 

 or strike against the upper, and, as the lower jaw is 

 broader than the upper, this can only be effected by an 

 inward inclination of the axes of the teeth, and hence of 

 their sockets. Behind the last molar is a triangular, 

 rough depression, the post-molar fossa, well marked in 

 some of the lower animals. The alveolar border is 

 slightly everted anteriorly, slightly inverted posteriorly. 

 The rami of the inferior maxillary bone are two 



