1886, | On Lemurine Reversion in Human Dentition. 947 
which presents a similar high percentage of tritubercular molars 
is the Esquimaux, where they occur in nineteen out of twenty- 
eight dentitions. The tendency is most marked in Slavs, French 
and Europeo-Americans, and is least marked in Greeks and 
Italians, and in Germans. These two subraces stand in the series 
between the intermediate type of the North American Indians 
and the other Europeans, I have seen no English dentitions. 
It is important to remember in this connection that the dis- 
tinguished ethnologist and archeologist, W. Boyd Dawkins, af- 
firms that the earliest inhabitants of Britain and some other parts 
of Europe were Esquimaux. He refers especially to the men of 
the caves, whose implements and arts he declares to be identical 
with those used by the Esquimaux of the present day? As it is 
evident that the lemurine or tritubercular reversion commenced 
with the Esquimaux, it may be that in some instances at least its 
appearance in men of Anglo-Saxon and other European races is 
due to inheritance alone. But it is reasonable to suppose that in 
this case, as in other evolutions, the cause which produced this 
modification of the Esquimaux dentition is still active, and its 
frequent appearance in the most civilized races may be due to 
this cause as well. The progressive character of the French den- 
tition in this respect is in broad contrast with the primitive char- 
acter of that of Italians and Greeks. The characters seen in the 
latter go far towards sustaining Professor Huxley’s hypothesis 
that the dark Mediterranean subraces consist of a mixture of 
Egyptian with the Indo-European stock. . 
In conclusion it may be stated that the tritubercular superior 
molars of man constitute a reversion to the dentition of the 
Lemuridz of the Eocene period of the family of Anaptomorphide. 
And second, that this reversion is principally seen among Esqui- 
maux and the Slavic, French and American branches of the 
European race. 
1 Early Man in Britain, 1880, p. 233. 
