8o 



THE BRITISH NATURALIST. 



[March 



A skeleton of one of the mysterious race of people known as the 

 Aztecs was recently discovered containing a full set of teeth. The left 

 front upper incisor is remarkable as in the centre is fixed a small 

 round piece of jade. Whether this was the artificial stopping of a decayed 

 tooth or put in as an ornament it is difficult to say, but seeing that all the 

 other teeth are sound, the probability is that it is merely for ornament. 

 To-day the Chinese think it lucky to wear the same stone, and nearly 

 every woman carries a piece in her hair, while many of the men wear it in 

 the form of a bracelet. Possibly the Aztecs may have had the same super- 

 stition. I said all the other teeth were sound, but careful examination 

 reveals the fact that the right front upper incisor is a false tooth. It is of 

 quite a different material to a natural tooth, but so good an imitation that 

 the difference was not noticed until some time after the skeleton was 

 deposited in the Museum. After the man's own tooth had been drawn it 

 may have been utilized as a model for the new one, and this afterwards 

 pushed up into the jaw. False teeth and the science of dentistry are 

 usually supposed to be an invention of modern times, but here is evidence 

 of dentistry being practised some hundreds of years ago, by a race of 

 people who are not generally thought to have advanced to such a state 

 of civilization, as this recent discovery would seem to show. — F. W. Monks, 

 Brooklands, Warrington. 



