494* VIVERRINE OPOSSUM. 
become longer and larger towards the grinders; 
they are points or cones placed on a broad base^ 
There are four grinders on each side, the 
middle two the largest^ the last the least; their 
base is a triangle of the scalenus kind, or having 
one angle obtuse and two acute. Their base is 
composed of two surfaces, an inner and an outer, 
divided by processes or points : it is the inner that 
the grinders of the lower jaw oppose, w^hen the 
mouth is regularly shut. The lower jaw has three 
fore teeth, or incisors, on each side ; the first con- 
siderably the largest, projecting obliquely for- 
wards; the other two of the same kind, but 
smaller, the last the smallest. 
The holder in this jaw is not so large as in 
the upper jaw, and close to the incisors. There 
are three cuspidati, the middle one the largest, 
the last the least; these are cones standing on 
their base, but not on the middle, rather on the 
anterior side. There are four grinders, the two 
middle the largest, and rather quadrangular, each 
of which has a high point or cone on the outer 
edge, with a smaller, and three more diminutive 
on the inner edge. 
It is impossible to say critically what the va- ^ 
rious forms of these teeth are adapted for from 
the general principles of teeth. In the front we 
have what may divide and tear off ; behind those 
there are holders or destroyers ; behind the latter 
such as will assist in mashing, as the grinders of 
the Lion, and other carnivorous animals; and, 
