An object very subservient to health, and which merits due attention, is the preservation of the teeth, the care of which, considering their importance in preparing the food for digestion, is, in general, far from being sufficiently attended to.
Many persons neglect to wash their mouth, in the morning, which ought always to be done.
Indeed this ought to be practiced at the conclusion of every meal, where either animal food or vegetables are eaten, for the former is apt to leave behind it a rancid acrimony, and the latter an acidity, both of them hurtful to the teeth. Washing the mouth frequently with cold water is not only serviceable in keeping the teeth clean, but in strengthening the gums, the firm adhesion of which to the teeth is of great importance in preserving them sound and secure. The addition of a few drops of tincture of myrrh to the water will make it more cleansing and sweeter to the breath. They daily apply to them some dentifrice powder, which they rub so hard as not only to injure the enamel by excessive friction, but to hurt the gums even more than by the abuse of the toothpick. The quality of some of the dentifrice powders advertised in newspapers is extremely suspicious, and there is reason to think that they are not altogether free from a corrosive ingredient.