1893.] The Genealogy of Man. 323 
or more quadritubercular molars, but they are not typical. In 
many tritubercular mammals, a precocious form or two can 
be found, which has acquired the fourth tubercle. But the 
further back we go in time, the fewer they become, until, 
in the Puerco fauna, of eighty-two species of Eutherian Mam- 
mals, but four have true quadritubercular superior molars. 
I take this opportunity of saying, however, that reversion 
is not necessarily a result of heredity. It may be simply a 
retrogression on a line of advance already laid down. What 
influence lemurine heredity may have had in the case of 
man, it is not easy to know. But it must be borne in mind 
that various forms of degeneracy of molar teeth are possible 
other than the resumption of the tritubercular type, yet the 
normal reduction generally presented, is just this lemurine 
and primitive Eutherian condition. The simplicity of the 
elements involved, has something, but not everything, to do 
with this reversion. 
Dr. Paul Topinard has made an investigation‘ of the char- 
acters of the crowns of the molars in man, and has reached 
general conclusions identical with my own. He remarks (p. 
665), “ It-is demonstrated, in conclusion, that the teeth of man 
are, at present, in process of transformation, and that in some 
future which is remote, the inferior molars shall certainly be 
quadricuspid, and the superior molars tricuspid. It will 
be curious to have the statistics as to prehistoric man; 
unfortunately, their crania are rare, and their molars gewil í 
much worn.” In the details of his examination, there are some 
divergencies from my results. Thus he finds the quadrituber- 
cular second and third superior molar relatively of more fre- 
quent occurrence in Europeans than I did. But the absence 
of Europeo-Americans. from his tables reduces the percentage 
of tritubercularsin the Indo-Europeans. He makes no report 
of Esquimaux. Had he observed this type, he would have 
found a higher per cent. of tritubercular upper molars than in 
any race that he has recorded. He confirms my conclusion as 
to the high percentage of quadritubercular superior molars in 
the Malays, Polynesians and Melanesians. 
* L’Anthropologie, 1892, p. 641 (Nov., Dec.). 
