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Aristotle's Book Of Problems, a non-fiction book by Aristotle |
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Of The Teeth |
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_ Q. Why do the teeth only, amongst all ether bones, experience the sense of feeling? A. That they may discern heat and cold, that hurt them, which other bones need not. Q. Why have men more teeth than women? A. By reason of the abundance of heat and cold which is more in men than in women. Q. Why do the teeth grow to the end of our life, and not the other bones? A. Because otherwise they would be consumed with chewing and grinding. Q. Why do the teeth only come again when they fall, or be taken out, and other bones being taken away, grow no more? A. Because other bones are engendered of the humidity which is called radical, and so they breed in the womb of the mother, but the teeth are engendered of nutritive humidity, which is renewed and increased from day to day. Q. Why do the fore-teeth fall in youth, and grow again, and not the cheek teeth? A. From the defect of matter, and from the figure; because the fore-teeth are sharp, and the others broad. Also, it is the office of the fore-teeth to cut the meat, and therefore they are sharp; and the office of the others to chew the meat, and therefore they are broad in fashion, which is fittest for that purpose. Q. Why do the fore-teeth grow soonest? A. Because we want them sooner in cutting than the others in chewing. Q. Why do the teeth grow black in human creatures in their old age? A. It is occasioned by the corruption of the meat, and the corruption of phlegm with a choleric humour. Q. Why are colts' teeth yellow, and of the colour of saffron, when they are young, and become white when they grow up? A. Because horses have abundance of watery humours in them, which in their youth are digested and converted into grossness; but in old age heat diminishes, and the watery humours remain, whose proper colour is white. Q. Why did nature give living creatures teeth? A. To some to fight with, and for defence of their lives, as unto wolves and bears, unto some to eat with, as unto horses, unto some for the forming of the voices, as unto men. Q. Why do horned beasts want their upper teeth? A. Horns and teeth are caused by the same matter, that is, nutrimental humidity, and therefore the matter which passeth into the horns turneth not into teeth, consequently they want the upper teeth. And such beasts cannot chew well; therefore, to supply the want of teeth, they have two stomachs, from whence it returns and they chew it again, then it goes into the other to be digested. Q. Why are some creatures brought forth with teeth, as kids and lambs; and some without, as men? A. Nature doth not want in necessary things, nor abound in things superfluous; and therefore, because these beasts, not long after they are fallen, do need teeth, they are fallen with teeth; but men, being nourished by their mother, for a long time do not stand in need of teeth. _ |
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