Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The works of John Hunter. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.
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![the lower jaw. When they are a little worn down by use, they com- monly first take an edge somewhat like a worn incisor, and afterwards become rounder. The use of the cuspidati would seem to be to lay hold of substances, perhaps even living animals : they are not formed for dividing, as the incisores are, nor are they fit for grinding. We may trace in these teeth a similarity in shape, situation, and use, from the most imper- fectly carnivorous animal, which we believe to be the human species, to the most perfectly carnivorous, viz. the liona. Of the Bicuspides. Immediately behind the cuspidati, in each jaw, stand two teeth, com- monly called the first and second grinders, but which, for reasons hinted at above, I shall suppose to constitute a particular class, and call them bicuspides. These (viz. the fourth and fifth tooth from the symphysis of the jaw) resemble each other so nearly that a description of the first will serve for both. The first indeed is frequently the smallest, and has rather the longest fang, having somewhat more of the shape of the cuspidatus than the second. The body of this tooth is flattened laterally, answering to the flat side of the fang. It terminates in two points, viz. one external and one internal. The external is the longest and thickest; so that on looking into the mouth from without, this point only can be seen, and the tooth has very much the appearance of a cuspidatus, especially the first of these teeth. The internal point is the least, and indeed sometimes so very small that the tooth has the greatest resemblance to a cuspidatus in any view*. At the union of the points the tooth is thickest, and * PI. III. f. l, 2, cc. a [That our conclusions as to the functions of an organ as it exists in man, when drawn exclusively from analogous structures in the lower animals, will frequently prove erroneous, is strikingly shown in these observations on the use of the cuspidatus. The simple and obvious use of this tooth, in the human species, is to tear such portions of food as are too hard or tough to be divided by the incisores; and we frequently find it even far more developed in animals which are known to be exclusively frugivorous. Not qnly is its structure wholly unadapted for such an object as that assigned to it in the text, but there is no analogous or other ground for supposing that man was ori- ginally constructed for the pursuit and capture of living prey. His naturally erect position and the structure of the mouth would render this impossible by the means in- ferred by Hunter, and the possession of so perfect an instrument as the hand obviates the necessity of his ever employing any other organ for the purpose of seizing or hold- ing food of whatever description,]](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21996635_0002_0044.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
