May iS, 1888.] 



SCIENTIFIC NEAVS. 



465 



THE CANINE TEETH OF MAN. 



BELIEVERS in the theory of evolution, as applying 

 to the development of the human frame, have no 

 doubt often wondered in what manner prehistoric and 

 unintellectual man contrived to hold his own in the world. 

 Compelled to bear his share in the struggle for exist- 

 ence, while not as yet possessed of reasoning powers 

 which might enable him to compensate for his physical 

 shortcomings by artificial means, he would seem to have 

 been placed at so great a disadvantage in the natural 

 and compulsory warfare that his survival as a species 

 is almost inexplicable, unless upon the supposition that 

 in those remote ages he was furnished with weapons, 

 material or immaterial, not granted to him now. Com- 

 pare man, physically speaking, with various members of 

 the brute creation. His organisation, superior in some 

 ways, is very far inferior in all the attributes which 

 would profit him in the daily conflict with his fellow- 

 creatures. Of all the animals upon which he so largely 

 depends for food, there are few indeed which would 

 not be able, were he deprived of his mental capabilities, 

 to set him utterly and absolutely at defiance. Some are 

 more swift of foot than he ; some superior in muscular 

 strength ; some furnished with formidable weapons 

 which would render personal encounter a hopeless 

 undertaking. Others are adepts in the arts of conceal- 

 ment, and would be discovered, if discovered at all, 

 principally by accident ; while those which fly through 

 the air, which burrow through the earth, or which swim 

 through the water, would practically be beyond all hope 

 of attainment. Animal food, therefore, to primitive and 

 unarmed man — and a semi-vegetarian dietary is in great 

 measure a concomitant of civilisation — could be obtained 



Head of Gorilla. 



•only with difficulty, and upon very rare occasions, by 

 reason of his physical disabilities for the pursuit and the 

 slaughter of his victims. 



But there is another and a still more important side 

 to the question. The struggle for existence is not a one- 

 sided conflict only, but is reciprocal ; and man, preying 

 upon certain animals, is himself preyed upon by others. 

 What bodily weapons does he possess with which he 

 may defend himself against these ? He is not sufficiently 

 fleet of foot to escape from them by flight ; he is not 

 fitted, like the monkeys, for a life in the trees ; he is not 

 strong enough to venture upon actual combat ; nor does 



he possess talons, beak, tusks, or fangs which might give 

 him the advantage in a personal encounter. How, then, 

 is he to hold his own until such time as his developing 

 intellect may compensate for his bodily weakness ? 



That he did so hold his own is obvious enough from 

 the mere fact of his existence and his pre-eminence now ; 

 that he must have done so, in the first place, by means 

 of physical qualifications is almost self-evident. What, 

 then, were the means ? 



Heads of Warriors on Old Peruvian Pottery. 



Probably these were varied. The savage excels his 

 civilised brother in almost every bodily attribute. 

 Swifter of foot is he, more enduring, more muscular, 

 keener sighted, more sensitive of ear and of nostril. 

 And as the savage bears to primitive and unintellectual 

 man much the same relation as that which the nine- 

 teenth-century Englishman bears to the savage, analogy 

 would lead us to conclude that these same physical quali- 

 fications must have been developed in still greater degree 

 in our primasval and unreasoning ancestors. But it is, at 

 any rate, not impossible that in these fathers of our race 

 certain specialised weapons were present, which now have 

 partly or wholly disappeared threugh the natural and in- 

 evitable degeneration which follows upon long disuse. 

 And we may even speculate, without altogether leaving 

 the realms of scientific inference for those of imagina- 

 tion, that the principal of these weapons consisted of the 

 Canine Teeth. 



What have we by way of grounds for such an 

 assumption ? 



In the first place we have analogy ; for we find 

 that the canine teeth of the higher monkeys, which 

 stand nearest to man in the arrangement of nature, 

 are developed in such a degree as to be fit for use as 

 weapons, and not uncommonly must be described as 

 " tusks " rather than as pure and simple teeth. In the 

 gorilla, for example, they project to the distance of at 

 least an inch and a half from the jaw, and are especially 

 conspicuous in the male animal. In the orang-outang 

 they are even more prominent, and constitute weapons 

 of the most formidable character, while in the chacma, 

 and indeed in all the baboons, they are of the very highest 

 importance. A chacma is more than a match for the 

 largest and most powerful dog. Plunging its teeth into 

 the unfortunate animal's throat, it thrusts its victim 

 forcibly away, while still retaining its hold. The conse- 

 quence is that the sharply-edged canines cut through mus- 

 cle, vein and arterv like so many razors, lacerate the im- 



