THE MOUTH
The lips—The vault and hard palate—The teeth—Excessive
wear of grinding surfaces—Tooth-picks—Fourth molars—Dental
rudiments—The canines.
The Australian’s mouth is decidedly large, and his lips full. The latter,
especially of the children, are as often as not becomingly arched and
furnished with a shapely philtrum.
If we were to look into the mouths of a number of aboriginals we would
find considerable individual differences in the configuration of the
vault. In some instances the roof would appear high and arched, in
others low and flat. If, further, we extended our observations in the
direction of any differences which might exist in the individual faculty
of articulated speech, relative to the variations in height already
noted, our efforts would be fruitless. It is very doubtful whether any
such connection between the height of the mouth and freedom of tongue
or speech does exist in the aboriginal’s case. But it has been rightly
pointed out that the hard palates of fossil skulls are flatter than they
are in those of modern races.
Perhaps the finest natural gift of the Australian (and the same was
true of the Tasmanian) is his strong set of ivory white teeth. In the
primitive tribes, living apart from civilization, dental disease or
caries is practically unknown. A common feature, however, is that the
teeth are ground down on a level, to varying extents, depending upon the
age of the individual examined. In many cases, the biting and grinding
surfaces of the teeth have been worn to almost the alveolar or gum-level
of the jaws, leaving only the roots with short truncated stumps to do the
mastication.
This excessive wear of healthy teeth is mainly attributable to the large
quantities of sand contained in the everyday diet. The aboriginal cooks
nearly all his meals in hot ashes and sand; it is unavoidable, therefore,
to include an appreciable quantity of gritty material in the articles
which are consumed. The aboriginal, furthermore, during the course of a
meal, might repeatedly call upon the strength of his teeth, as an easy
way of crunching bones of animals, and shell of molluscs and crabs, and
many other things. Casually one might take notice of the fact that the
teeth of the fossil of Gibraltar are worn in the same remarkable way.
An aboriginal does not take any particular care of his teeth, with the
exception that after every meal, some considerable time is devoted to
the removal of any remnants of meat which may have been retained. For
this purpose, the dry seed-stalks of grass and small twigs are generally
used. The old Kukata men were observed to possess permanent tooth-picks,
consisting of short pieces of wood sharpened at one end. For convenience
sake, they carried these, planted in their shaggy beards.
Should there be an aching tooth to cure, the native does it by heating
the point of a small stick in a fire and inserting it into the cavity
which is causing the trouble.
A most interesting circumstance in connection with the dentition of the
Australian is the comparatively frequent occurrence of a fourth molar in
the jaws. We know that in European subjects the third molar or wisdom
tooth is smaller, and takes longer in coming to the surface than the
other molars; its development is certainly on the down-grade with our
kind; but the third molar of the aboriginal is strong and lasting.
[Illustration: _PLATE IV_
1. Aluridja woman. Note matted locks and asymmetry of breasts.
2. Wongapitcha warrior, so-called Semitic type.]
Even when a fourth molar cannot be found in toto, there is often
present, behind the third molar, a peculiar prolongation of the alveolar
groove, which seems to be indicative of a former existence, in the
earlier evolutional history of the Australian, of such a tooth. Indeed,
the occurrence of a fourth molar in the human species, which in the
aboriginal is certainly not sporadic, must be looked upon as a character
originally common to the ancestral forms of both man and anthropoid. For
this reason, we must not be surprised to hear that a fourth molar might
occasionally be found in any race of man.
Professor W. L. H. Duckworth has described some small dental rudiments on
the alveolar surface of the upper jaw, which might even suggest remnants
of third premolars. Such rudiments usually occur between the second
bicuspid and the first molar, and consist of dentine. If it can be proved
that we have before us true evidence of immature tooth-development, the
phenomenon suggests a dental formula similar to that of some of the
simians possessing three premolars. On the contrary, the formations may
be the remnant masses of temporary milk teeth.
Supernumerary bicuspids are, it appears, not very often observed in the
Australian.
It is still questionable whether, as Charles Darwin suggested, the
ancestor of the human species has ever possessed extra large eye-teeth
or canines in any way resembling those of an anthropoid. In the Talgai
skull, referred to later, the canines certainly seem abnormally large,
but one could not be expected to draw definite conclusions from a single
specimen, especially when it is known that, even among ourselves, we here
and there see persons whose canines are quite the same size as those of
the Talgai fossil.