A study of the degeneracy of the jaws of the human race / by Eugene S. Talbot.
- Talbot, Eugene S. (Eugene Solomon), 1847-1924.
- Date:
- 1892
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: A study of the degeneracy of the jaws of the human race / by Eugene S. Talbot. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the University of Toronto, Harry A Abbott Dentistry Library, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harry A Abbott Dentistry Library, University of Toronto.
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![as each generation is ushered inU^ the world, every physician and dentist is well aware. That there is a cause for irregularities all must admit. Irregularities of the jaws and teeth were never observed among the ancient races, nor are they found among the pure races of to-day. There are very few among the clannish European, African, and Asiatic at the present time, but irregularities of jaws and teeth are very common among the Americans and are very numerous among the nobility of European countries. The features of the early races and the features of the European, the African, and the Asiatic differ not only from those of the people of this country and from one another, but also from former generations of the same race, as it is a well-known fact that marked changes take place in the faces and expressions of the same people in one or two generations. The African of this country is a well-marked illustration of this kind. One condition aiding if not producing this degeneracy is the small \ size of the jaw. The truth of this statement is easily verified by either ' observation or reading. All anthropologists unite in affirming that the jaw of animals is larger in proportion to the cranium than that of man, and the jaw of the savage races is larger than that of civilized races. ''One is struck by the great backward elongation of the jaws, etc., in apes. The teeth and jaws are much larger in all their directions than in man. But the want of space in the jaw in man is only too conspicuous ; the contraction acts as if expecting the absence of the wisdom-tooth, and this having failed to occur, is, in conse- I quence, a premature and anticipatory operation of the laws of economy of growth. The compression which the shrinking of the contracted bone exercises upon the wisdom-tooth in all stages of its existence must be very great, and possesses as potent influence in hastening its suppression as its own innate, growing defectiveness. As Dr. D. C. Hawxhurst has said, '' The maxillae of civilized races are smaller than those of savage races, which has come about through slow changes that have taken place in the environments, through the influence of which there has been a hereditary transmission of a small element of decrease to each successive descendant. The teeth have felt the influence of this changed environment fully as much as the jaw^s, but not in the same way. They have dwindled less than the maxillae, and are therefore too large for the jaws and suffer from unnatural pressure. The wisdom-tooth has suffered from this disparity between the size of the teeth and jaws more than the other teeth. It is slowly becoming rudimentary. The inability of the hard parts of the teeth to correspond in size to their lessened function, or, in other words, to keep pace in retrograde evolution with the jaws and soft parts, has ] resulted in weakening the structure of these organs.* Mr. West I has presented nearly the same views. That the increasing contraction of the jaw in the higher races is contributing largely toward the suppression of the wisdom-tooth, there is no doubt.f Among the causes of pressure of the teeth, I would suggest the rapid intellectual development of the race (z>., the civilized portions) causing a retro- grade evolution in regard to the size of the jaw^s. The jaws might be shortened after the lapse of many generations by the extraction *DEN:rAL Cos.MOs. vol. xix, p. 125. + Pr©c?-Od<)!it. Sodety oi Great Britain.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21202643_0014.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
