226 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 



between the canine and lateral incisor is much greater than 

 the intervals between any of the other teeth. The central 

 incisors are also considerably larger than the lateral. They 

 all present, at their cutting edges, a serrated appearance, 

 evidently produced artificially by riling, the central in- 

 cisors exhibiting three denticulations, the lateral only two. 

 Although the file has passed for some depth into the sub- 

 stance of the crown, yet the enamel, from its thickness, has 

 scarcely been abraded sufficiently at the bottom of the notch 

 to expose the dentine. (See figs. 1 and 2.) 



The practice of artificially interfering with the incisive 

 teeth is one which prevails amongst various savage races in 

 different parts of the world, but more especially amongst 

 many tribes of negroes. In some, as in the case before us, 

 it is the custom to give to the cutting edge a serrated ap- 

 pearance ; in others, as in the people of Unyamuezi, described 

 by Captains Speke and Grant, the lower incisors are more 

 or less extracted, and a deltoid-shaped fissure is cut between 

 their two upper central incisors. Winterbottom, again, de- 

 scribes some of the negro tribes as filing their teeth, so as 

 to make them conical and sharp-pointed ; whilst Livingstone 

 states that both sexes amongst the Batoka negroes, a tribe 

 living near the Victoria Falls on the Zambesi river, knock 

 out the upper front teeth at the age of puberty, but leave 

 the under teeth in their place. Amongst the Manganyas 

 Dr Kirk tells me the practice of filing the upper incisors is 

 confined to the male sex. 



In the lower jaw of the skull of this Manganya negro, 

 only the left lateral incisor is in its socket, the rest having 

 unfortunately dropped out of their alveoli, but it exhibits 

 no marks of the file. The canine teeth are somewhat 

 remarkably shaped at the cutting edge, where they exhi- 

 bit a prominent central tubercle, with two faintly-marked 

 lateral elevations. The intervals between the different teeth, 

 though very perceptible, are yet scarcely so strongly pro- 

 nounced as in the upper jaw. The vertical and antero- 

 posterior diameters of the ascending ramus are almost 

 equal. The horizontal ramus is comparatively feeble, except 

 at the symphysis, which possesses a fairly-marked chin. 



