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not only on the internal surface, against which the 

 young tooth has been supposed to exert its force, but 

 also upon the external parts, upon which it could 

 have no effect. By absorption the barrier is removed 

 and the tooth then comes forward. The process is 

 very beautiful, and no less worthy of admiration 

 is the manner in which the milk teeth are shed. The 

 incisors lose their fangs, and just when the permanent 

 teeth appear, the crown of the temporary ones is 

 removed from the mouth. The removal of the fangs 

 of the milk incisors is the result also of absorption, 

 and the same process effects the removal of the tem- 

 porary molars, only its operation is not precisely 

 similar ; for in these last, not only the fang but the 

 greater portion of the crown is taken away, and little 

 more than the table is cast off when the remnant of 

 what once was a tooth is at length shed. The pro- 

 cess of cutting the molar teeth will be more clearly 

 comprehended by referring to the annexed wood-cut, 

 in which the darkened spots indicated by the line 

 running from a denotes the permanent tooth already 

 through the gum and in the mouth, though still 

 covered and partially concealed by the retained table 

 of the temporary grinder c. The appearance of the 



