A new classification of human tooth forms with special reference to a new system of artificial teeth / by J. Leon Williams.

  • Williams, John Leon.
Date:
[1914], ©1914
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A new classification of human tooth forms with special reference to a new system of artificial teeth / by J. Leon Williams. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

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    might ]iave been known either from observation or from a knowledge of the more recent researches in heredity. The works of Mendel, Weissman, Galton, Thomson, Bateson and others have made it clear that certain characters are dominant in one parent and other characters in the other. One child may inherit the general facial peculiarities of the father, and the complexion, color of eyes and hair, and the teeth of the mother. In another child these conditions may be reversed. In Sicily, that old battle ground of the races, where the blood of the blue-eyed, fair-haired followers of JSTor- man Roger has mingled with that of the Arabs, I ha,ve often seen just such effects of this crossing of types as I have mentioned, and one may see in Ireland people with black hair, dark skin and blue eyes.^ What is the value of the temperamental theory of tooth form in instances like these? Wfe <<fe <^ And now, consider for a moment the basis on which the whole theory rests. It is founded on the idea of four groups or classes of individuals called the pure temperamental types and known as the sanguine, the nervous, the bilious and the lymphatic, in accordance with the alleged dominance of the physiological functioning of the blood, the nerves, the bile, or the lymph. What do the advocates of this theory mean by the dominance of these systems ? Obviously but one thing can be meant, and that is that the action of the heart or the liver or the lymphatic system or the nervous system is stronger or dominant in the individuals characterized by these terms. People of the sanguine temperament should show a stronger action of the heart, those of the bilious temperament greater activity of the liver and people of the nervous temperament should be distinguished by greater intellectual achievements and brain power generally. Well, I have a large collection of photographs of some of the most eminent persons of this country and Europe and I find that all forms of faces and physical characteristics are included among the ablest and most intellectual people of the world. ^Broca and Thurnam, in the Memoirs of the Anthropological Society, describe a group of sixteen ancient skulls, nearly all perfect, found in France at Nogent-les-Vierges. Three of them are described as the dolichocephalic skulls of Aryan stock, eight as the brachycephalic of Mongolian origin and five as a cross of the two. These latter had the high, narrow fore- head of the long headed race, while the middle and occipital regions of the skulls had the width and fulness of the round headed race. Thomson, in his fine work, Heredity, says: A white man of considerable intellectual ability marries a negro woman of great physical beauty and strength: the result may be—has been a mulatto, who inherits some of his father's intellectual virtue and some of his mother's physical strength. Again, If a tall variety of (sweet) pea be crossed with a dwarf, all the offspring are tall, and among their offspring in turn three-fourths are tall and one-fourth dwarf, but none between the two. The italics are mine. Thomson further says, when speaking of Mendel's law: Experimental work has driven home the conception of unit characters . . . that are inherited independently.