IN,;GENERAL. 115 
absolutely exclusive subsistence of canines to be 
animal food; and this law, with its modifications, 
is so constant, that the nature of the food of mam- 
malia may be ascertained with certainty by an in- 
spection of the structure of the teeth alone. We 
may further observe from the teeth of canines, that 
the carnassiers and false molars effecting only a 
coarse imperfect division of their nutriment, the 
animals so constituted must have a tendency to 
subsist on putrescent flesh»and broken bones, to 
gorge with more avidity than selection, and conse- 
quently to suffer alternately from the lethargy of 
indigestion and from protracted abstinence. Mr 
J. E. Gray has observed, respecting the milk teeth 
of young dogs, that the carnassier is provided with 
a small internal central lobe, as in other carnivora, 
whilst the same tooth in the permanent set always 
presents a large anterior lobe. In the growth of 
the animal, the anterior part of the jaws alone 
increases in length, so that the carnassier continues 
as near the fulcrum of the lever as before; and 
this precaution of Nature seems to be a further 
proof of her case, because, as the animals in ques- 
tion draw a part of their sustenance from the bones 
they masticate, if the principal teeth used to break 
them were not retained nearest the angle of the 
mouth, there would not be sufficient muscular power 
to effect that purpose. 
There is, however, some slight variation in the 
teeth of the Buansa, or Canis primavus of Hodgson, 
in whose lower jaw the second tubercular tooth is con- 
