The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1881-11-06
Hygiene of the Teeth.

dentifrice. I never could get mysel
to believe in the natural necessit
of a toothbrush. The African nations
the Hindoos, the native of Southern
Europe, the South-Sea Islanders, tn,
Arabs, the South American vegetsri
ans. IN short, three-iourths OF oul
fellow men, besides our next relatives
the frugivereus animals, have splen'
did teeth without sozodont. l really
believe that ours decay from sheer
dlsuss; the clearinghouse homo live
chiefly On pap-Wants all his meats
soft-bCiled, and growl, at cold biscuit
or an UNDERGONE potato; in other
words, he delegates to the cook the
proper functions of his teeth. We
hear occasionally of old men getting
a second. or rather third, setof teeth,
l met enc of them in northern Qua
temsla, and sscertained that he had
become toothless during twelve
years sojourn in seaport town, and
that be got his new set upon his re-
turn to his native village, where cir.
camstances obliged him to resume
the hard corn-cake diet of his boy
hood years. His teeth had reap.
peared, as soon as their services were
called tor. and would probably never
have absented themselves if a pap
diet had not made them superhuous.
An artificial dentifrice will certainly
keep the teeth white, but that does
not prevent their premature decay;
disuse gradually softens their sub
stance. til one fine day the hash-eater
snaps his best incisor upon an un.
expected piece of bone. Every old
dentist knows hundreds of city custo
mers whom the daily use OF a tooth
brush did not save from the necessity
of applying, before the end of the
fortieSh year, for complete ''cellu-
loid set." I do not say that a soft
h-brush and such dentifrices as
oatmeal or burned arrow-root can do
any harm, but, for sanitary purposes,
such precautions must be supple
mented by dental exercises. Let q
child invigorate its teeth by chewing
hard crust. better yet, handful OIL
''6t. Johns bread" or caroh-besne,
the edible pod of the Mimosa 2iliquG
Children and whole tribes of the
northern races seem to feel an in
stinctiVe desire to exercise their teeth
upon some solid substance. as pet
squirrels will gnaW the furniture If you
give them nut-kernels instead of nuts
Thus Kohl tells us that the natives Of
southern Russia are addicted TO the
practice of chewing a vegetable
product which he at first supposed te
be pumpkin Or melon seeds bu
found to be the much harder seed O
thelTurkish sunfower HeLianthus per
enn&s). Their national diet consist
OF milk. kukuruz (hominy, with but
ter, etc., and boiled mutton, auC
they seem to feel that their Turko
man jaws need something more sub
stantlaI. The schoolboy habit O
gnawing pen-holdeIs, finger nails
etc, may have similar Significance
Tne MimoSa siLiqua would yield abun
dainty 10 our southern States, and it
sweet pods would make an excellen
substitute for chewing gum. Oul
practice of slipping ice cold snc
stesming-hot drinks. turn about,
has also a very injurious effect upor
the brittle substance that forms tht
enamel of our teeth; no porcelain
glaze woald stand such abuse for any
length OF time. and experience bal
taught hunters and dog fanciers tina
il destroys even the boae-crushine
fangs OF the animal from which oul
canine teeth derive their name. -
Popular Science Monthly.