156 



TEETH 



*HE CONDITION IN WHl IB THE TABLE 

 OF A TEMPORARY MC'AR IS CAST 

 FROM THE MOUTH OF A HORSE. 



The dotted lines mereiy indicate 

 the extent of the tooth previous 

 to absorption. 



gled with the secretion of the last-named bodies. Saliva extracts the 

 savor from the food; and the tongue also brings these in contact with 

 the seat of taste, while discharging its office of collecting the broken 

 pieces. 



The reader being now fully informed as to facts, may have patience 

 sufficient to peruse an explanation of the principles on which the fore- 

 going statements are founded. Such a mode of proceeding may, to 

 certain methodical writers, seem to be transposing the proper arrange- 

 ment. The author does not undertake to defend his actions on the score 



of their propriety ; but he feels that he is ad- 

 dressing human beings in whom a desire to 

 know is the best possible foundation on which 

 knowledge can be established ; consequently, 

 principles become less repulsive when com- 

 municated after incidents have kindled cu- 

 riosity. 



The primary molars cannot boast the length 

 of the fang, though they exhibit very nearly 

 the same extent of superficial surface as char- 

 acterizes the succeeding teeth. They have 

 rather shallow roots, which are not composed 

 of those consolidated materials that are present in their immediate suc- 

 cessors. When the original molar is shed, the temporary tooth is not 



expelled entire from its position, but the pres- 

 sure of the growing organ (which comes into 

 the mouth exactly Where the milk grinder 

 stood) causes the root to be absorbed, till 

 nothing but a superficial shell has to be 

 sjected. 



The horse, in its natural state, exists on 

 fibrous grasses ; it therefore becomes essential 

 the animal should retain the power of mas- 

 ticating such substances. Nature never with- 

 holds what is necessary to the well-being of 

 her creatures. The mode in which the Com- 

 mon Parent provides for the preservation of 

 this ability in the horse is perfectly distinct 

 from any provision that He makes for most 

 earthly creatures. The temporary remains of 

 a molar tooth are not shed till another orgaii 

 is in the mouth at hand to permanently sup 

 ply its place. But the permanent tooth does not appear ready flattened 



A FIRST PERMANENT MOLAR, AS 

 IT APPEARED IK THE MOOTH, 

 UNCOVERED. 



This tooth occupied the fourth 

 Bitue.tion in the jaw; there- 

 fore the root would require 

 to be considerably extended 

 by subsequent growth. 



