THE TEETH OF FOSSIL MAN 461 
commenced to develop. The canine teeth of modern 
man have been modified to take their place in the biting 
series. Their deep seat of development can be explained 
only by assuming that at one time they had strong and 
extremely long roots, as in anthropoids. Their time of 
eruption, too, is peculiar. In anthropoids these great and 
highly specialised teeth appear late — with the last molar 
in female anthropoids and after the last molar in the 
males. In Eoanthropus, the canine, having retained a 
development which may be called anthropoid in degree, 
should appear late — about the time at which the third 
molar cuts. It is strange that the canine tooth of 
Eoanthropus should be so much worn, and yet the 
second molar, which comes into use before the canine 
teeth of anthropoids, should be worn to a relatively less 
degree. In modern man the date of eruption of the 
canines has been accelerated. In him it appears about 
the twelfth year, with or before the second molar. The 
canine has lost its high degree of specialisation and taken 
a functional place between the incisor and premolar teeth. 
The position of the human canine in the dental series 
justifies us in assuming that it should appear before and 
not after the premolar teeth. We explain its late appear- 
ance by its evolutionary history. The discovery, then, of 
a race of human beings with pointed simian canine teeth 
was not unexpected. We did not know at what stage 
of man's evolution the canine teeth became transformed, 
nor could we guess the exact manner in which their 
humanisation had been brought about, until Mr Charles 
Dawson's discovery at Piltdown. 
We now wish to see what light this discovery throws 
on the evolution of our modern bite — the contact which 
the lower teeth make with the upper. In the course of 
quite recent centuries the manner in which the front 
teeth become opposed in the act of chewing has changed 
amongst European races and nations of European origin. 
In over 95 per cent, of modern English people the cutting 
edges of the lower incisor teeth no longer meet the edges 
of the upper teeth, but pass behind them. There is an 
