694 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol X, 



No. v.— NOTE ON THE SAME. 

 iWith a Plate.-) 



This skull, whicb was presented to the Bombay Natural History Society's 

 Museum by Captain R. Wapshare who shot the animal in the Edlabad 

 District, was handed over to me by Mr. Phipson to describe, it having been 

 sent up on account of the extraordinary condition of the teeth. After study- 

 ing it, one can only wonder at the animal having lived so long, for its life 

 cannot have been a happy one, suffering a^ it must have done from frightful 

 toothache, and the loss of part of its skull, besides being handicapped in its 

 early adult life by having only one upper canine. 



The skull is that of a well-grown male tiger ; it has a peculiar lop-sided 

 appearance ; the usual convexity of the right maxilla over the root of the right 

 canine is wanting, making that side of the face almost flat ; the prominent 

 supra-orbital angle of the frontal bone of the right side is absent ; the sur- 

 face of bone between its normal position and the lacrymal tubercle is rough 

 and sclorosed, but part of the root is still present. The zygomatic process 

 is short and has a secondary exostosis, and there has been an injury at the 

 suture between the zygomatic and temporal bones. 



Teeth. — The left upper canine is broken down level with the jaw from 

 decay. The socket of the right is very small, and there is no appearance of 

 the tooth from the mouth. The right upper canine has never been erupted; 

 but is of normal size, being 11 c. m. long, and is contained in a groove in 

 the right nasal f orza. almost completely filling it up behind, where the base 

 rests close to the ethmoid bone ; the pointed extremity is abnormally 

 directed downwards and a little backwards, being buried in the alveolus 

 under the first premolar ; the lower and inner surface is free from bony 

 support ; the anterior part of the upper curve is overlapped by the inferior 

 turbinated bone, the superior turbinated being pressed upwards. The tooth, 

 therefore, must have grown backwards and inwards, and by pressure caused 

 absorption of the inner walls of its cavity, being finally contained in a cyst 

 and capable of a certain amount of movement which had caused the erosion 

 and irregularities of the enamel near the point, immediately over which is the 

 rudimentary first preemolar, not present on the other side, 



I think the condition of the skull must have been caused by a severe injury 

 received some long time previously, probably a bullet which had struck the 

 frontal bone from above and a little behind, removing in its passage the 

 frontal angle and on its way outstriking the zygomatic process. The 

 encysted canine was due to the faulty position of the tooth during develop- 

 ment, and probably the extra strain on the left canine caused it to decay 

 prematurely, 



P. W. BASSETT SMITH, R.N. 



