Treatise on the natural history and diseases of the human teeth : explaining their structure, use, formation, growth, and diseases, in two parts / by John Hunter ; with notes by Thomas Bell.

  • John Hunter
Date:
1839
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Treatise on the natural history and diseases of the human teeth : explaining their structure, use, formation, growth, and diseases, in two parts / by John Hunter ; with notes by Thomas Bell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

    54/127
    the bone which was above them not giving way to their growth, as the alveolar process does. It often happens that the incisores and cuspidati, in the upper jaw especially, are so irregularly placed as to give the appearance of a double row. I once saw a remarkable instance of this in a boy; the second incisor on each side was placed further back than what is common, and the cuspidatus and first incisor closer together than if the second incisor had been directly between them, so that the appearance gave an idea of a second row of teeth. This happens only in the adult set of teeth, and is owing to there not being room in the jaw for this second set, the jaw-bone being formed with the first set of teeth, and never increasing afterwards; so that if the adult set does not pass further back, they must overlap each other, and give the appearance of a second row.* Of the Use of the Teeth, so far as they affect the Voice. The teeth serve principally for mastication, and that use need not be further explained. They serve likewise a secondary or subordinate purpose, giving strength and clearness to the sound of the voice, as is evident from the alteration produced in speaking, when the teeth are lost. This alteration, however, may not depend entirely upon the teeth, but, in some measure, on the other organs of the voice having been accustomed to them ; and therefore when they are gone those other organs may be put out of their common play, and may not be able to adopt themselves so well to this new instrument. Yet I believe that habit in this case has no great effect, for those people seldom or never get the better of the defect: and young children who are shedding their teeth, and are, perhaps, without any fore teeth for half a year or more, always have that defect in their voice till the new teeth come, and as these grow the voice becomes clear again. This use seems to be entirely in the fore teeth, for the loss of one of these makes a great alteration, and the loss of two or three grinders seems to have no sensible effect. As an argument for the use of the teeth in modifying the sound of the voice, we may observe, that the fore teeth come at a time when the child begins to articulate sounds, and at that time they are so loose in the gums that they can be of very little service in mastication. Every defect in speech, arising from this defect of the organ, is generally attended with what we call a lisp. People who have lost all their teeth, and most old people for that reason, lose, in a great * [The occurrence of supernumerary teeth is not at all uncommon, and they are found not as Hunter supposes, only amongst the incisores and cuspidati, but not unfrequently also near the posterior molares. When found near the front of the mouth they also resemble a small and ill-formed cuspidatus, and when near the molares the crown is broader and truncated, somewhat like the neirrhbourino- teeth. It is almost unnecessary to add that the case of irregularity mentioned in the second paragraph is one of very frequent occurrence.]
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3