THE TEETH. 
21 
All these hind teeth are made to endure constant grinding, one over the other, in masticating, 
besides frequent shocks — as when nuts are cracked — and to last for years. Covered with a beautiful 
enamel, which gives them strength and smoothness, they are safely fixed by fangs in sockets in the 
bone, in such a manner that the nerves and blood-vessels supplying them do not suffer from pressure. 
They are not quite fiat at the top, for then they could not grind, and they are not acutely sharp- 
pointed, for then the points would prevent the side-to-side movement of the jaw, and would be broken 
off; but they have rounded projections, or cusps, on them, separated by grooves, so that those of 
SKELETON OF THE GORILLA. 
the teeth of one jaw can fit into those of the other. All these teeth are not quite alike, and they are 
divisible into two kinds, the three hinder ones being the molar teeth, from Mold, a small clove, and the 
two in front of them being called false molars or pre-molars (front molars). Every one who has had 
a back tooth (a molar) taken out, will remember its three fangs, and in a Gorilla there would be the 
same terrible wrench in extracting a molar for the same reasons as with us. But, fortunately lor it, 
tooth decay is unknown, and the molars, with their three fangs, last as long as life. The pre-molars 
have two fangs only in man, but it appears that sometimes there are three to those teeth in the upper 
jaw of the Gorilla, and two only in the lower. They are smaller than the true molars or three back 
teeth, and the front of them ; and that nearest the canine tooth is often tall, and almost like a four-sided 
4 
