The teeth in man and the anthropoid apes : being a review of the various publications on the subject by Professor Owen, F.R.S. and an essay on the teeth in the varieties of man / by Francis C. Webb.

Webb, Francis Cornelius.

Date:: [between 1860 and 1869?]

Credit: The teeth in man and the anthropoid apes : being a review of the various publications on the subject by Professor Owen, F.R.S. and an essay on the teeth in the varieties of man / by Francis C. Webb. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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$of tlieir limits. At or about the period of the second dentition, consolidation is effected in the genus Pithecus. In the Great Orang (P. Satyrua) the obliteration of the suture does not take place until the full development of the great canines. Its traces are, however, occasionally to be found in adult crania. Thus, in the skull of a large male Bomean Orang, numbered 6051, in the Museum of the College of Surgeons, the line of demarcation is distinctly discernible. In the Gorilla more or less of the suture is permanent, and evidences, even in the mature skull, that remarkable upward expansion of the premaxillaries which is characteristic of the species. The Chimpanzee loses the line of separation sooner than any other Ape. In the cranium of an immature Tr. niger in the same collection (No. 5171), having the twenty deciduous teeth in place, it is so far oblite- rated as to be traceable only at the sides of the nasal aperture. The remnant of articulation is so small, that ]\Ir Lawrence, in referring to this specimen, states, not a vestige of the sutures separating this bone is to be seen. They still, however, exist on the palate, and, as -vve have said, at the sides of the nasal opening. The breadth of the anterior surface of the premaxillary in Man is limited by the incisor teeth; the inner margin articu- lates by a permanent suture with the corresponding bone of the opposite side. This median articulation is not depressed below the level of the neighbomnng surface; on the contrary, it is slightly raised, constituting a prominent ridge, and tei-minating above in a process which projects forwards,—the anterior nasal spine. This process forms the commencement of the nasal ridge, supporting the septum narium. In every race of Man, the median cartilage of the nose receives an osseous support which projects in a greater or less degree beyond the margin of the bony nasal cavity. The anterior alveolar sm-face is slightly undulated by the fangs of the incisor teeth, but the amount of unevenness is insignificant when compared with the prominences and depressions arising from the same cause in P. Satyrus and Tr. niger. In depth, from the lower margin of the nasal opening to the alveolar border, the human pre- maxillary is short, and in the direction of its plane it offers a strong contrast to the Quadrumanous configm'ation. In the white races of Man the premaxillary is usually vertical, although exceptions are not of unfrequent occurrence ; in the melanous varieties there is ^a somewhat greater projection forwards, but the degree to which this occurs differs much in individuals. It is the fashion to choose the most debased specimens of crania$