Excerpt from Sketches in Natural History, Vol. 5 of 6: History of the Mammalia; Order-Ruminantia

To begin with the teeth. We may observe that there are no incisors in the upper jaw, the hardened gum sus taining the pressure of the lower incisors, which are eight in number, with thin, broad edges; their position is not vertical, but oblique, so that their edges do not press directly against the gum, but rather their posterior surface. The two central are in general the largest, and the outermost on each side the smallest and most oblique. In the giraffe, however, the outermost is the largest, and it appears as if divided by a furrow. The molars are six on each side in both jaws: of these the first three are preceded by milk or deciduous teeth the three posterior are originally permanent. Their surface is marked by two pairs of crescentic ridges. In the lower jaw these crescents have the convexity outwards; in the upper, the reverse. These crescents as they wear down by use show a centre of bone surrounded by a ridge of enamel. Between the molars and incisors of the lower jaw intervenes a vacant space.

With respect to the camels, though the number of molars on each side above is really six, five only are in a continuous series, and resemble molars in their shape anterior to these continuous teeth, and separated by a considerable space, we find a tooth resembling in shape a stout short canine, being of a simple conical figure; this is the first molar: it has been called a second canine, but erroneously, the true canine, which is large, strong, and pointed, being placed before it, a small interval separating them. In the lower jaw the continuous molars are four, with a similar pointed and detached molar and canine; there being true canines, as well as canine-like molars, in both jaws. Incisors also are found in both jaws: four in the upper, but the two central are small and fall out early the two lateral are permanent, and resemble canines in figure. In the lower jaw there are only six incisors, compressed, oblique, and pointed. Fig. 1 shows the dentition of the Upper jaw, in two views; Fig. 2, that of the lower, also in two views.

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