last molar, so absurdly misnamed the
wisdom tooth. If there be any wisdom involved in its appearance it is of
the sort characterized by William Allen White's delicious definition:
"That type of ponderous folly of the middle-aged which we term 'mature
judgment.'" The last is sometimes worst as well as best, and this
belated remnant is not only the last to appear, but the first to
disappear. In a considerable percentage of cases it is situated so far
back in the jaw that there is no room for it to erupt properly, and it
produces inflammatory disturbances and painful pressure upon the nerves
of the face and the jaw.

Even when it does appear it is often imperfectly developed, has fewer
cusps and fewer roots than the other molars, is imperfectly covered with
enamel and badly calcified. In no small percentage of cases it does not
meet its fellow of the jaw below and hence is almost useless for
purposes of mastication. But it comes in every child born into the
world, simply because at an earlier day, when our jaws were longer--to
give our canine teeth the swing they needed as our chief weapons of
defense--there was plenty of room for it in the jaw and it was of some
service to the organism. If the Indiana State Legislature would only
pass a law prohibiting the eruption of wisdom teeth in future, and
enforce it, it would save a large amount of suffering, inconvenience,
and discomfort, with little appreciable lack of efficiency!

In this list of admitted charges against heredity must also come the
gall-bladder, that curious little pouch budded out from the bile ducts,
which has so little known utility as compared with its possibility as a
starting-point for inflammations, gall-stones, and cancer.

Then there is that disfiguring facial defect, hare-lip, due to a failure
of the three parts of which our upper jaw is built to unite
properly,--this triple construction of the jaw being an echo of
ancestral fishlike and reptilian times when our jaws were built in five
pieces to permit of wide distention in the act of swallowing our prey
alive. All over the surface of the body are to be found innumerable
little sebaceous glands originally intended to lubricate hairs, which
have now atrophied and disappeared. These useless scraps, under various
forms of irritation, both external and internal, become inflamed and
give rise to pimples, acne, or "a bad complexion."

And so the list might be drawn out to most impressive length. But this