142 



ALIMENTARY ORGANS. 



It is said that quadrupeds, apes not excepted, have 

 fewer muscles in the lips than are met with in the hu- 

 man species ; of course, they have less variety in the 

 motions of the mouth, which is probably one reason 

 they are not capable of imitating the human voice, or 

 of uttering articulate sounds ; and adds another item 

 to the innumerable proofs that nature- has placed an 

 original barrier between ourselves and every being 

 she has placed around us in the animal world. 



T. Among all the parts and powers which belong 

 to this curious structure, none are perhaps more re- 

 markable, or more plainly evince contrivance and de- 

 sign, than the instruments provided for breaking and 

 bruising the aliment, viz. the teeth. 



THE TEETH. 



A. They form the same proofs of purpose and 

 intention, as a knife for cutting, or a mill for grinding. 

 No other bone in the body has any tendency to shoot 

 out little pegs, except the very two, where .it 

 would be difficult to dispense with them. We per- 

 ceive design, and that is all ; for it is no explanation 

 to say there is a pulp within the sockets, which forms 

 and makes these teeth. The pulp is a part of the 

 provision, and th< ion still recurs, how came 



it in the jaws alone ? As the teeth do not admit, like 

 our other bones, of being covered with flesh to pre- 

 serve them from the air, to which no bone in the 

 body would bear to be exposed, they are plaited 

 over with a glassy substance, called enamel, which 

 gives them also another advantage, that of superior 



