The molar teeth, in this mutilated lower jaw, like those in the upper jaw of Toxodon, had persistent pulps, as is proved by the conical cavity at their base, as represented in fig. 3; they consequently required a deep socket, and a corresponding depth of jaw to form the socket and protect the pulps. In order to economise space, and to increase the power of resistance in the tooth, and perhaps, also, to diminish the effects of direct pressure on the highly vascular and sensible matrix, we find the molars and their sockets are curved, but in a less degree than those of the upper jaw of the Toxodon. They correspond, however, with the superior molars of the Toxodon in the antero-posterior diameter, in being small and simple at the anterior part of the jaw, and by increasing in magnitude and complexity as they are situated more posteriorly. They are, however, narrower from side to side; but supposing them to belong to the Toxodon, it would agree in this respect with most other large herbivorous mammalia;—the fixed surface for attrition in the upper jaw being from obvious principles more extensive than the opposed moveable surface in the lower jaw.
The first grinder, in the lower jaw here described (Pl. [V]. fig. 2), is of small size and simple structure, being surrounded with a coating of enamel of uniform thickness, and without any fold penetrating the substance of the tooth. It is more curved than any of the other molars, and appears to have differed from the external incisor only in its entire coating of enamel and direction of growth; it is interesting, indeed, to find so gradual a transition, in structure, from molar to incisive teeth, as this jaw presents; for the robust incisors may here be regarded as representing molars simplified by the partial loss of enamel, and with a change in their direction.
In the second molar, we find an increase in the antero-posterior diameter, and in the length of the tooth, and the enamel at the middle of the outer side makes a fold which penetrates a little way into the tooth; the line of enamel, on the inner side, is slightly concave and unbroken.
The third molar presents an increase of dimensions in the same directions as the second; the enamel on the outer side of the tooth presents a similar fold, but it is directed a little more backwards.
In the fourth molar, besides a further increase of size, and a corresponding but deeper fold of enamel in the external side of the tooth, we have the grinding surface rendered more complicated by two folds of enamel entering the substance of the tooth from the inner side: these folds divide the antero-posterior extent of the tooth into three nearly equal parts; they are both directed obliquely forwards, half-way across the substance of the ivory.
The fifth molar presents the same structure as the fourth, which it exceeds only slightly in size.
In the sixth molar we have a proportionally greater increase of size in the antero-posterior diameter, which measures two inches; but the lateral diameter is but slightly augmented; its structure resembles that of the fifth.
As these grinding teeth by no means increase in the lateral diameter in the same proportion as in their antero-posterior diameter, the posterior ones present, but in a greater degree, the compressed form which characterizes the grinders of the upper jaw of the Toxodon.
It will be seen, however, that there is a difference in the structure of the grinders in this fragment of the lower jaw and those of the upper jaw of the Toxodon. In the lower grinders there are two folds of enamel proceeding from the inner side of the tooth into its substance, whilst in the upper grinders there is only one fold continued from the inner side; in the lower grinders there is also a fold of enamel reflected into the substance of the tooth from the outer surface, while in the upper grinders of Toxodon we find the enamel coating on the outer side of the tooth merely bent inwards, so as to describe, in the transverse section, a gently undulating line; fig. 7, Pl. [V]. is the grinding surface of the sixth molar, right side, upper jaw.
But this difference of structure is by no means incompatible with the co-existence of the two series of teeth in the same animal, since we find the grinders of the upper and lower jaws presenting differences of structure of equal degree in existing herbivorous species. If we examine the jaws of the Horse, for example, we shall find not only an equal amount of difference in the structure of the upper and lower grinders, but that they deviate from one another in a very similar manner to that above described in the Toxodon. In this comparison attention should be confined to the course of the external enveloping layer of enamel, leaving out of consideration the central crescentic islands of enamel which constitute the additional complexity of the Horse’s grinder. Viewing then the course of the external coat of enamel on the worn surface of the tooth, we find it describing on the outer side of the tooth in the upper jaw an undulating line,—a middle convexity being situated between two concavities; on the inner side of the tooth one fold of enamel penetrates to the middle of the tooth, and on each side of this there is a smaller fold. But in the lower jaw the line of enamel on the outer side of the tooth, instead of merely bending outwards midway in its course, is reflected a little way inwards; while on the opposite, or inner side of the tooth, the enamel sends two extensive folds into the substance of the tooth, opposite to the interspace of which the shorter fold projects from the outer side. Now, on the supposition that the fragment of the lower jaw here described belongs to the Toxodon, the kind and degree of difference in the complexity of the grinding surface of the teeth in the upper and lower jaw, are remarkably analogous to those which exist in the Horse. I have only further to remark that in the Horse the inflected folds of enamel, instead of being simple and straight with the two constitutive layers in apposition, as in the Toxodon, are irregular in their course, with cœmentum intervening between the constitutive layers, which also diverge from each other at their angle of reflection, so as to augment the amount of dense material which enters into the composition of the tooth.