128 SUPERNUMERARY TEETH. 



Human beings, like the lower animals, are now and 

 then afflicted with a superfluity of tooth-substance, or 

 at least they have supernumerary teeth. John Hunter 

 says {'' The Human Teeth/' p. 53) : 



"We often meet with supernumerary teeth, and this, 

 as well as some other variations, happens oftener in 

 the upper than in the lower jaw, and, I believe, always 

 in the incisors and cuspidati. I have only met Avith 

 one case of this kind, and it was in the upper jaw of a 

 child about nine months old. The bodies of two 

 teeth, in shape like the cuspidati, were placed directly 

 behind the bodies of the two first permanent incisors; 

 so that there were three teeth in a row, placed behind 

 one another, namely, the temporary incisor, the body 

 of the permanent incisor, and that supernumerary 

 tooth. The most remarkable circumstance was that 

 these teeth v/ere inverted, their points being turned 

 upward and bent, caused by the bone which was above 

 them not giving way to their growth, as the alveolar 

 process does." 



The following account of cases of third dentition in 

 human beings is from "Bond's Dental Medicine" 

 (p. 210): 



'■'Third Dentition. — A number of well authenticated 

 cases of partial and even complete dentition, occurring 

 in very old persons, are recorded in the books. In one 

 instance, given in the 'Edinburgh Medical Com.' (vol. 

 iii.), the patient, who was sixty years old and entirely 

 toothless, suffered very severely. At the end of twenty- 

 one days from the beginning of his sufferings, however, 

 he was compensated by the appearance of a complete 

 set of new teeth. 



