. Animal Life and the World of Nature; A magazine of Natural History. Fig. 1. Dentition of Double-Tusked Fox. IAVAS once asked by a seeker after zoological knowledge to enlighten him on the subject of " Animal ; Naturally I was somewhat astonished, as I cannot claim any knowledge of the proper way to extract a lion's tusks or to stop an elephant's molar; and I may add that I have no particular desire to learn such accomplishments. Further conversation soon showed me that the term " dentistry" was only my interviewer's ultra-popular synonym for the word " dent
. Animal Life and the World of Nature; A magazine of Natural History. Fig. 1. Dentition of Double-Tusked Fox. IAVAS once asked by a seeker after zoological knowledge to enlighten him on the subject of " Animal ; Naturally I was somewhat astonished, as I cannot claim any knowledge of the proper way to extract a lion's tusks or to stop an elephant's molar; and I may add that I have no particular desire to learn such accomplishments. Further conversation soon showed me that the term " dentistry" was only my interviewer's ultra-popular synonym for the word " dentition," and on my return home I consulted a dictionary to find out if there was justification for the former usage. The result of my search was to find, as I expected, that " dentistry" indicates only the surgical treatment of teeth. I was, however, somewhat surprised to learn from the same source that " dentition" properly means " the breeding or cutting of teeth in infancy; the time of breeding ; Strictly speaking, therefore, this term has no more right to be used in the sense in which it is employed by naturalists—that is to say, to designate the general characters and number of the teeth of animals—than the word " ; Since, however, its employment in this sense is now universal in the scientific world, I make no apology for continuing to follow this usage. If my readers desire a more thoroughly technical term, "odontology" (that is to say, the science of teeth) is at their service. So much by way of preliminary. I now pass on to my proper subject, in which, from its extent, I find a great difficulty in knowing where and how to commence. Perhaps the most essential features in connection with the dentition of mammals are, firstly, that the teeth are confined to the margins of the jaws, where they form a single row, and, secondly, that (with the exception of certain aberrant types such as whales, dolphin
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