DIFFERENCES OF THE TEETH. 329 



bled truncated cones ; the cuspidati were not pointed, as is 

 usual, but broad and flat on the masticating surface, and 

 very similar to the neighbouring bicuspides. The same 

 circumstances have been observed in other specimens, as 

 in a mummy at Cambridge, described by Middleton*, in 

 another at Cassel f ; and in a third at Stuttgard J. Blu- 

 MENBACH observed a similar structure in the head of a 

 young mummy, which he opened in London § ; and in an- 

 other which he received as a present from Mr. Turner, of 

 Cambridge ||. " There must," he observes, " be great dif- 

 ferences in the crania of various mummies, when it is con- 

 sidered that the practice of embalming the body after death 

 prevailed in Egypt for many ages, during Vvdiich great vicis- 

 situdes occurred in the government and inhabitants of the 

 country; consequently we cannot reasonably expect to find 

 this formation of the teeth in every specimen ; yet it con- 

 stitutes a singular variety, and deserves mention, as it may 

 assist in distinguishing the mummies of some particular 

 age and nation. It would be difficult to assign a satisfac- 

 tory cause for this peculiarity ; yet we may not improbably 

 ascribe it in great part to the kind of food taken by the 

 Egyptians, which Diodorus Siculus expressly describes to 

 have consisted of vegetables, roots, &c. Hence the teeth 

 must have been worn down ; and it has been observed 

 th^t these organs, when reduced by attrition, or purposely 

 diminished in length, grow thicker, both in man and 

 animals ^. 



A similar formation of the teeth was noticed by Wins- 

 low ** in the cranium of a Greenlander from the Isle of 



* Monument Jntiq. in Works^ v. iv. " Quod vero singulare et prodigii 

 fere loco habendum, (denies) anteriores s. incisores, non acuti illi quidem 

 atque ad incidendum iiptl, sed perinde ac maxi Hares latl plane atque ob 

 tusi sunt." 



+ Bruckmann's Nachtricht von einer Mumle ; Braunschweig. 



f Blumenbach Bcjjtrdge ; part ii. page 98. 



^ Philosophical Transactions, 1794. part ii. p. 184. 



II Dec. quarta Craniorumy p. 4. 



5 De G. H. Var. Nat. sect iii. ^ 64. 



»* Mem. de VAcad. des Sciences de Paris; 1722, p. 323. 



