The Natural History of Pliny, Volume 3 · the Elder Pliny
CHAP. 63.—WONDERFUL CIRCUMSTANCES CONNECTED WITH THE TEETH.
The other animals are born with[233] teeth, whereas man has them only at the seventh[234] month after his birth. While other[235] animals keep their teeth to the time of their death, man, the lion, the beasts of burden, the dog, and the ruminating animals, all change them; the lion and the dog, however, change none[236] but the canine teeth. The canine tooth of the wolf, on the right side, is held in high esteem as an amulet.[237] There is no animal that changes the maxillary teeth, which stand beyond the canine teeth. With man, the last teeth, which are known as the “genuini,” or cheek teeth,[238] come about the twentieth year, and with many men, and females as well, so late even as the eightieth; but this only in the case of those who have not had them in their youth. It is a well-known fact, that the teeth are sometimes shed in old age, and replaced by others. Mucianus has stated that he, himself, saw one Zocles, a native of Samothrace, who had a new set of teeth when he was past his one hundred and fourth year. In addition to these facts, in man males have more teeth than females,[239] which is the case also in sheep, goats, and swine. Timarchus, the son of Nicocles the Paphian, had a double[240] row of teeth in his jaws: the same person had a brother also who never changed his front teeth, and, consequently, wore them to the very stumps. There is an instance, also, of a man having a tooth growing in the palate.[241] The canine teeth,[242] when lost by any accident, are never known to come again. While in all other animals the teeth grow of a tawny colour with old age, with the horse, and him only, they become whiter the older he grows.
CHAP. 64.—HOW AN ESTIMATE IS FORMED OF THE AGE OF ANIMALS FROM THEIR TEETH. The age, in beasts of burden,[243] is indicated by the teeth. In the horse they are forty in number. At thirty months it loses the two fore-teeth in either jaw, and in the following year the same number next to them, at the time that the eye-teeth[244] come. At the beginning of the fifth year the animal loses two teeth, which grow again in the sixth, and in the seventh it has all its teeth, those which have replaced the others, and those which have never been changed. If a horse is gelded[245] before it changes its teeth, it never sheds them. In a similar manner, also, the ass loses four of its teeth in the thirtieth month, and the others from six months to six months. If a she-ass happens not to have foaled before the last of these teeth are shed, it is sure to be barren.[246] Oxen change their teeth at two years old: with swine they are never changed.[247] When these several indications of age have been lost in horses and other beasts of burden, the age is ascertained by the projecting of the teeth, the greyness of the hair in the eyebrows, and the hollow pits that form around them; at this period the animal is supposed to be about sixteen[248] years old. In the human teeth there is a certain venom; for if they are placed uncovered before a mirror, they will tarnish its brightness, and they will kill young pigeons while yet unfledged. The other particulars relative to the teeth have been already[249] mentioned under the head of the generation of man. When teething first commences, the bodies of infants are subject to certain maladies. Those animals which have serrated teeth inflict the most dangerous bites.[250]
CHAP. 65.—THE TONGUE; ANIMALS WHICH HAVE NO TONGUE. THE NOISE MADE BY FROGS. THE PALATE. The tongue is not similarly formed in all animals. Serpents have a very thin tongue, and three-forked,[251] which they vibrate to and fro: it is of a black colour, and when drawn from out of the mouth, of extraordinary length. The tongue of the lizard is two-forked, and covered with hair.[252] That of the sea-calf also is twofold,[253] but with the serpents it is of the thinness of a hair; the other animals employ it to lick the parts around the mouth. Fishes have nearly the whole of the tongue adhering to the palate, while in the crocodile the whole of it does adhere thereto: but in the aquatic animals the palate, which is fleshy, performs the duty of the tongue as the organ of taste. In lions, pards, and all the animals of that class, and in cats as well, the tongue is covered with asperities,[254] which overlap each other, and bear a strong resemblance to a rasp. Such being its formation, if the animal licks a man’s skin, it will wear it away by making it thinner and thinner; for which reason it is that the saliva of even a perfectly tame animal, being thus introduced to the close vicinity of the blood, is apt to bring on madness.
Of the tongue of the purple we have made mention[255] already. With the frog the end of the tongue adheres to the mouth, while the inner part is disjoined from the sides of the gullet; and it is by this means that the males give utterance to their croaking, at the season at which they are known as ololygones.[256] This happens at stated periods of the year, at which the males invite the females for the purposes of propagation: letting down the lower lip to the surface of the water, they receive a small portion of it in the mouth, and then, by quavering with the tongue, make a gurgling noise, from which the croaking is produced which we hear. In making this noise, the folds of the mouth, becoming distended, are quite transparent, and the eyes start from the head and burn again with the effort. Those insects which have a sting in the lower part of the body, have teeth, and a tongue as well; with bees it is of considerable length, and in the grasshopper it is very prominent. Those insects which have a fistulous sting in the mouth, have neither tongue nor teeth; while others, again, have a tongue in the interior of the mouth, the ant, for instance.
In the elephant the tongue is remarkably broad; and while with all other animals, each according to its kind, it is always perfectly at liberty, with man, and him alone, it is often found so strongly tied down by certain veins, that it becomes necessary to cut them. We find it stated that the pontiff Metellus had a tongue so ill adapted for articulation, that he is generally supposed to have voluntarily submitted to torture for many months, while preparing to pronounce the speech which he was about to make on the dedication of the temple of Opifera.[257] In most persons the tongue is able to articulate with distinctness at about the seventh year; and many know how to employ it with such remarkable skill, as to be able to imitate the voices of various birds and other animals with the greatest exactness. The other animals have the sense of taste centred in the fore-part of the tongue; but in man it is situate in the palate as well. CHAP. 66.—THE TONSILS; THE UVA; THE EPIGLOSSIS; THE ARTERY; THE GULLET.
In man there are tonsils at the root of the tongue; these in swine are called the glandules. The uvula,[258] which is suspended between them at the extremity of the palate, is found only in man. Beneath this lies a smaller tongue, known by the name of “epiglossis,”[259] but it is wanting in animals that are oviparous. Placed as it is between two passages, the functions of the epiglottis are of a twofold nature. The one of these passages that lies more inward is called the [tracheal] artery, and leads to the lungs and the heart: the epiglottis covers it during the action of eating, that the drink or food may not go the wrong way, and so be productive of suffering, as it is by this passage that the breath and the voice are conveyed. The other or exterior passage is called the “gula,”[260] and it is by this passage that the victuals and drink pass: this leads to the belly, while the former one communicates with the chest.[261] The epiglottis covers the pharynx, in its turn, when only the breath or the voice is passing, in order that the victuals may not inopportunely pass upwards, and so disturb the breathing or articulation. The tracheal artery is composed of cartilage and flesh, while the gullet is formed of a sinewy substance united with flesh.
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