[gg] J. Peyer saith, the Teeth are made of convolved Skins hardened; and if we view the Grinders of Deer, Horses, Sheep, &c. we shall find great Reason to be of his Mind. His Observations are, Mirum autem eos (i.e. Dentes) cùm primùm è pelliculis imbricatim convolutis & muco viscido constarent, in tantam dirigescere soliditatem, quæ ossa cuncta superet. Idem fit etiam in Ossiculis Ceraforum, &c.——Separatione factâ, per membranas conditur Magma locellis, quos formant laminæ tenues, ac duriusculæ ad Dentis figuram anteà divinitùs compositæ. J. Peyer Merycol. l. 2. c. 8.
[hh] Qui autem (i.e. Dentes) renascuntur, minimè credendi sunt à facultate aliquâ plasticâ Brutorum denuò formari, sed latentes tantummodo in conspectum producuntur augmento molis ex effluente succo. Id. ibid.
[ii] From these, and other like Considerations of the Teeth, Galen infers, that they must needs be the Work of some wise, provident Being; not Chance, nor a fortuitous Concourse of Atoms. For the Confirmation of which he puts the Case, That suppose the order of the Teeth should have been inverted, the Grinders set in the room of the Incisors, &c. (which might as well have been, had not the Teeth been placed by a wise Agent) in this case, what Use would the Teeth have been of? What Confusion by such a slight Error in their Disposal only? Upon which he argues, At siquis choream hominum 32 (the Number of the Teeth) ordine disposuit, eum ut hominem industrium laudaremus; cùm verò Dentium choream Natura tam bellè exornârit, nonne ipsam quoque laudabimus? And then he goes on with the Argument, from the Sockets of the Teeth, and their nice fitting in them, which being no less accurately done, than what is done by a Carpenter, or Stone-Cutter, in fitting a Tenon into a Mortice, doth as well infer the Art and Act of the wise Maker of Animal Bodies, as the other doth the Act and Art of Man. And so he goes on with other Arguments to the same Effect. Galen. de Us. Part. l. 11. c. 8.
[kk] A curious Account of this may be found in an Extract of a Letter concerning the Teeth of divers Animals. Printed at Paris, in M. Vaugnion’s Compleat Body of Chirurg. Oper. Chap. 53.
[ll] As it hath been taken notice of, that various Animals delight in various Food; so it constantly falls out, that their Teeth are accordingly fitted to their Food; the rapacious to catching, holding and tearing their Prey; the herbaceous to Gathering and Comminution of Vegetables: And such as have no Teeth, as Birds, their Bill, Craw and Gizard, are assisted with Stones, to supply the defect of Teeth. But the most considerable Example of this Kind is in some Families of the Insect-Tribes, as the Papilio-Kind, &c. who have Teeth, and are voracious, and live on tender Vegetables in their Nympha, or Caterpillar-State, when they can only creep; but in their mature Papilio-State, they have no Teeth, but a Proboscis, or Trunk to suck up Honey, &c. their Parts for gathering Food, as well as their Food being changed, as soon as they have Wings to enable them to fly to it.
[mm] It is remarkable in the Teeth of Fishes, that in some they are sharp, as also jointed, so as to fall back, the better to catch and hold their Prey, and to facilitate its Passage into the Stomach: So in others they are broad and flat, made to break the Shells of Snails and Shell-Fish devoured by them. These Teeth, or Breakers, are placed, in some, in the Mouth; in some, in the Throat; and in Lobsters, &c. in the Stomach it self; in the bottom of whose Stomachs are three of those Grinders, with peculiar Muscles to move them.
[nn] What is there in the World can be called an Act of Providence and Design, if this temporary Defect of Teeth be not such; that Children, for Instance, should have none whilst they are not able to use them, but to hurt themselves; or the Mother; and that at the very Age when they can take in more substantial Food, and live without the Breast, and begin to need Teeth, for the sake of Speech; that then, I say, their Teeth should begin to appear, and gradually grow, as they more and more stand in need of ’em.
[oo] It would be endless to particularize here, and therefore I shall refer to the Anatomists; among the rest, particularly to Galen, for the sake of his Descant upon this Subject. For having described the great Accuracy of the Contrivance and Make of these Parts, he saith, Haud scio an hominum sit sobriorum ad Fortunam opificem id revocare: alioqui quid tandem erit, quod cum Providentiâ atque Arte efficitur? Omnino enim hoc ei contrariaum esse debet, quod casu ac fortuitè fit. Galen. de Us. Part. l. 11. c. 7. ubi plura.
[pp] The Bore of the Gullet is not in all Creatures alike answerable to the Body or Stomach. As in the Fox, which both feeds on Bones, and swallows whole, or with little chewing; add next in a Dog, and other ossivorous Quadrupeds, ’tis very large, viz. to prevent a Contusion therein. Next in a Horse, which though he feeds on Grass, yet swallows much at once, and so requires a more open Passage. But in a Sheep, Rabbit, or Ox, which bite short, and swallow less at once, ’tis smaller. But in a Squirrel, still lesser, both because he eats fine, and to keep him from disgorging his Meat upon his descending Leaps. And so in Rats and Mice, which often run along Walls with their Heads downwards. Dr. Grew’s Comp. Anat. of Stom. and Guts. Chap. 5.
[qq] Of this see Dr. Willis’s Pharm. Rat. Part 1. Sect. 1. c. 2. Steno also, and Peyer Mery, l. 2.