THE MOUTH. 



361 



"6. Teeth. The teeth of the Dog are forty-two in number: twelve incisors, four 

 canines, and twenty-six molars. 



" The incisors, six in each side of the jaws, are more developed in the superior than 

 in the inferior maxilla, and are divided, as in the Horse, into pincers, intermediates, and 

 corner incisors; the last being much stronger than the preceding, and these again 

 stronger than the pincers. 



" Their free part presents, in the virgin tooth, three tubercles : a middle, which is the 

 strongest, and two lateral ; these, together, are not unlike a trefoil or the upper part of a 

 fleur-de-lis, especially those in the upper jaw. On the internal face is remarked a table 

 or slope, somewhat resembling that of the Ox and Sheep, and separated from the root 

 by a very distinct border whose extremities mark the lateral lobes. This table is of no 

 advantage in ascertaining the age. 



"The root, very developed, flattened on both sides, and separated from the free 



Fig. 166. 



Fig. 167. 



GENERAL AND LATERAL VIEW OF THE DOG'S TEETH. 



portion by a well-defined neck, is solidly encased in a deep alveolus. Its internal cavity 

 is very promptly obliterated. 



" When the tooth is submitted to wear, the middle lobe is the first to disappear; so 

 that it no longer resembles a trefoil (fig. 167). 



" The caducous incisors are much smaller and more pointed than the permanent 

 ones; yet,. like them, they show lateral lobes. At the period of their eruption these 

 teeth are somewhat widely apart. 



"The fangs, or canine teeth, two in each 

 jaw, are very strong, elongated organs, conical 

 in form, curved backwards and outwards, and 

 placed immediately after the incisors. 



"The upper fangs are the thickest, and 

 have a small space between them and the corner 

 incisors, in which the inferior canines are lodged. 



" These teeth are deciduous, like the incisors, 

 and are distinguished from the replacing ones 

 by their being thinner and more elongated. 



"They are worn more or less quickly, ac- 

 cording to the kind of food the animal obtains, 

 and are sometimes broken in fighting. 



"The molars are distributed in the two 

 jaws, twelve being fixed in the upper and four- 

 teen in the lower. Nearly all of them are 

 terminated by somewhat acute lobes, proper for tearing animal food. The strongest 

 in each jaw is, for the upper, the first back-molar or fourth in the row, and in the lower, 

 the fifth. All in front of these are deciduous." 



ANTERIOR VIEW OF THE INCISORS AND 

 CANINE TEETH IN A YEAR- OLD DOG. 



