THE HUMAN DENTITION 151 



in the first there is a fair-sized hypocone but this cusp is 

 reduced in the second and absent in the third. A hypoconulid 

 occurs in the first and third mandibular molars but is absent 

 from the second. All these teeth exhibit a greater transverse 

 breadth of the posterior moiety (talonid), are well-rounded in 

 contour and show the typically human cruciform arrangement 

 of furrows. The hypoconulid of the first molar is almost in 

 the axial line but in the more progressive third Avhich pos- 

 sesses a strikingly large entoconid and a correspondingly small 

 hypoconid this cusp lies more on the lateral side. 



It is true that there are marked changes going on in the 

 jaAvs of modern Europeans. It is true also that there is great 

 variation in the size and development of the third molar but it 

 must be remembered that this tooth is normally small in the 

 ancestors of modern human stock and therefore increase in 

 its size is much more noteAvorthy than reduction. The second 

 molar is undergoing most obvious retrogression in the human 

 race, especially in the Europeans. "We see this clearly in its 

 reduction in size and its loss of cusps but it Avill be still more 

 evident when Ave have discussed the anomalies of the human 

 dentition. 



The only other human type which Ave shall consider in this 

 account is the Negro. Frequently in every-day talk we include 

 the Negro among "loAver races" of Mankind although there 

 seems to be no other justification for this than the assumption 

 that White Man is the most highly eA T oh T ed human type. If 

 AA'e pause to consider what Ave really mean by the indefinite 

 term ''highly evolved" Ave shall readily discover that there 

 is at least doubt concerning the A-alidity of our standard. If 

 Ave mean that White Man is more adaptable than the Negro, 

 Ave merely infer that the former has retained to a greater de- 

 gree the primitive potentiality of adequate response to en- 

 vironmental conditions and since the Negro is less adaptable 

 he must be more specialized. But specialization may also be un- 

 derstood by the term "highly evolved." The physical char- 

 acters of the Negro show indeed that he is an advanced special- 



