TheBanyanTree: Seahorse teeth

[Peter Macinnis]

 From today's sifting:

In January 1859, 'The Times' (that's the London one) reveals that the 
'Behar' docked at Southampton from Alexandria with freight from Bombay. 
  The manifest would make Masefield quiver: two packages of specie, 
value not stated, pearls with a value of 12,200 rupees, 728 bales of 
silk, 490 bales of flax, 59 boxes of oranges, 26 cases of seahorse 
teeth, 23 packets of elephant's teeth and 47 packages of sundries.

The seahorse teeth had me puzzled.  Given their source, they were 
probably hippopotamus teeth, most likely destined to be used in false 
teeth, though 'seahorse' could also mean walrus.  The OED says that the 
same year, 1859, was the first recorded use of 'seahorse' as a name for 
_Hippocampus_, the fish that we now call a seahorse.

I am having a nice day!

peter

-- 
  _--|\   Peter Macinnis, word tinker, and science gossip,
/     \  William McGonagall Fellow in scansion adjustment, University
\.--._*  of Anson Bay, anapest exterminator, MCSE in iambic mechanics,
      v   http://members.ozemail.com.au/~macinnis/index.htm