188 MAN NATURALLY OMNIVOROUS. 



the level of the others, and are obviously unsuited to the 

 purposes w^hich the corresponding teeth execute in carni- 

 vorous animals. The obtuse tubercles of the human molares 

 have not the most remote resemblance to the pointed pro- 

 jections of these teeth in carnivorous animals ; they are as 

 clearly distinguished from the flat crowns with intermixed 

 enamel of the herbivorous molares. In the freedom of 

 lateral motion^ however, the human inferior maxilla more 

 nearly resembles that of the herbivora. 



The teeth and jaws of man are in all respects much 

 more similar to those of monkeys, than of any other animals. 

 A skull, apparently of the orang-utang, in the Museum of 

 the College, has the first set of teeth : the number is the 

 same as in man, and the form so closely similar, that they 

 might easily be mistaken for human. Tn most other simise 

 the canine teeth are much longer and stronger tlian in us ; 

 and so far these animals have a more carnivorous character. 

 The points and ridges of the molares In simiae are distin- 

 guished by their sharpness from the peculiar obtuse tubercles 

 of the human molares. 



The length and divisions of the alimentary canal are very 

 different according to the kind of food. In the proper car- 

 nivorous animals the canal is very short *^, the large intes- 

 tine cylindrical, and the coecum not larger than the rest. 

 The form of the stomach and the disposition of its openings 

 are calculated to allow a quick passage of the food. In tlie 

 herbivora the whole canal is long f 3 and there is either a 

 complicated stomach, or a very large coecum and a saccu- 

 lated colon : the stomach, even where simple, is so formed 

 as to retain the food for a considerable time. 



In comparing the lengtli of the intestines to that of 

 the body in man, and iu other uiiimals, a difficulty arises 



* The length of the body, in a straight line from the snout to the anus, 

 compared to that of the intcsitines, varies in the carnivora, according to 

 CuviER, from 1 : 3 to 1 : 5.8 ; excepting the hyasna, where it is as 1 : 8.3. 

 Lecons (V Anatomie Comp. ili. 450. 



t In the ruiniii:intia, the comparative K'ngths of the body and intestines 

 vary between 1 ; 11 and 1 ; 28: in the solipeda, between 1 : b ani 1 : 10. 

 Ibid, 433 and 4. 



