AGE OF MAN. 



The age of man has always been a subject of the most 

 profound philosophical study ; for, from the time of the philoso- 

 pher's stone to the researches in alchemy of the Middle Ages 

 for the source of life everlasting, and to the elixirs of life of the 

 quack medicines of to-day, it has always been the desire of a 

 large number of mankind to outlive its time. From a practical 

 point of view, the question of the age of man is one of senti- 

 ment. The periods of hahijhood, youth, adult life, and old age 

 are definitely marked, and depend not altogether upon the 

 number of years which the animal has lived, but to a greater 

 degree upon the mental development, which, in a precocious 

 youth, makes a man of him, and in an adult, wlio should have 

 been in his prime, but has abused his natural surroundings, 

 makes prematurely an old man. 



The mother, as a matter of sentiment, looks to the denti- 

 tion of her baby for an evidence of its development, and the 

 teeth furnish medico-legal proof of the age of certain subjects ; 

 so that the dentition of man, as in the other animals, is of first 

 importance as an indication of age, during a certain period, 

 until adult life. 



DENTITION OF MAN. 



Dental formula 



2 12 

 f Temporary, .... g i 2 ^^^ 



t> . 2 . 1 . 2 . 3 „^ 

 Permanent, . . . — g = 32 



Man has thirty-two teeth, — four incisors in each jaw (8), 

 two tushes in each jaw (4), and five molars (which are sub- 

 divided into two premolars and three molars) in each arch of 

 botli jaws (20). The arch of the teeth, unlike in the other 

 animals, is continuous, no interspace existing between the 

 incisors and the tushes, nor between the latter and the molars. 



(203) 



