DIFFERENCES OF THE TEETH. 3:^1 



that these organs have no powers of growth, or organic 

 change; and that they experience no alteration, after ap- 

 pearing through the gum, but tliat of mechanical wearing 

 or chemical decay. That their substance possesses neither 

 vessels nor nerves, is, I think, fully proved by what I have 

 stated in another place*. 



The assertion of Buffon, Erxleben, and others, that 

 the teeth of the Calmucks are longer, and separated by 

 wider intervals from each other, is contradicted by the 

 specimens of their crania in the possession of Blumen- 



BACH. 



Certain colours and forms are given to the teeth artifi- 

 cially, in some instances, by way of ornament. 



Mr. Marsden t informs us that the Sumatrans commu- 

 nicate to the teeth a jetty blackness by tlie cmpyreumatic 

 oil of the cocoa-nut shell 5 and that they even abrade the 

 enamel, that they may receive and retain the dye more 

 perfectly. 



The very general practice among the Malays and Asiatic 

 islanders, of chewing the areka-nut, betel-leaf, and chunam 

 or lime;};, turns the teeth black, unless great pains are 

 taken to prevent it, and covers them with a brownish black 

 incrustation. From one or the other of these causes the 

 teeth are blackened in the Javanese §, the Eirmans ||, Tun- 

 quinese %, and Buggesses**. 



Some Negro tribes file their teeth so as to make them 

 conical and sharp-pointed JJ ; some tile avv^ay their inner 



* In Dr. Rees's CydopcEdia, art. CRANm>i. 



+ History of Sumatra ; ed. 3. p. 53. 



-\. The practice is described particularly by Da.mpier, Voyages^ v. i. 

 p, 318. '* It tastes rough in the mouth, and dyes the lips red, and the teeth 

 black ; but it preserves them, and cleanseth the gums." See also v, ii. p. 54. 



§ Blumenback, tabr 39. Hawkesworth's Collection of Voyages^ v. 3. 

 pp. 286, 347. 



jl Sy.mks, Embassy to Avu ; v. ii. p. 235. 

 5 Dampier, v. ii. p. 41. 



** Blumenbach, tab. 49. 



f+ Churchill's Voyages^ v. 5. pp. 139, 143, 385. Philos. Trans- 

 V. Ixxiii. p. 92. Winteubottow on the Native Africans ; v. i. p. 104. 

 The Sumatrans also do it ; Marsden, p. 53. 



