Cheyenne transporter. [volume] (Darlington, Indian Terr.) 1879-1886, 1881-12-26
Hygiene of the Teeth.

DIR. Felix Oswald, in Popular Science Monthly
A hard crust is the best possible den.
trifice. ] never could get myself to be-
lieve in the natural necessity of tooth
brush. The African nations, the Hin.
docs, the natives of Southern Europe.
the South Sea Islanders, the Arabs, the
South American vegetarians, in short
three-fourths of our fellow-men, besides
our next relatives, the frugivorus ami
mails, have splendid teeth, without
sozodont. l really believe that our
decay from sheer disuse; the boarding
house homo lives chiefly on pap-wants
all his meats soft-boiled, and growls
at cold biscuit Or an underdone potato; !;
In other words, he delegates to the cook
the proper functions of his teeth. We
hear occasionally of old men getting
second, or rather a third, set of teeth.
l met one of them in Northern Guate-
mala, and ascertained that he had be-
come toothless during twelve years
sojourn in a seaport town, and that he
got his new set upon his return to his
native village, where circumstances
obliged him to resume the hard corn
cake diet Of bis boyhood years. His
teeth had reappeared as soon as their
services were called for, and would
probably never have absented them
selves If pap diet had not made them
supertluous. An artificial dentrihce
will certainly keep the teeth white, but
that does not prevent their premature
decay; disuse gradually softens their
substance, till one fine day the hash
eater snaps his best incisor upon an un-
expected piece of bone. Every old
dentist knows hundreds Of city custom
ers whom the daily use of a tooth brush
did not save from the necessity of ap-
plying, before the end of the fortieth
year, for complete "celluloid SET" l
do not say that soft tooth brush and
such dentrifceS as oat meal or burned
arrowroot can do any harm; but for
sanitary purposes such precautions
must be supplemented by dental exer-
else. Let child invigorate its teeth
by chewing a hard crust, or, better yet,
handfal Of "St. Johns bread" or
carob beans, the edible pod of the
Mimosa siliqua. Children and whole
tribes of the northern race seem to fee
an instructive desire to exercise their
teeth upon some solid substance, as
pet squirrels will knaw the furniture
if you give them nut kernels instead OF
nuts. Thus Kohl tell us that the ma
tives of Southern Russia are addicted
TO the practice of chewing a vegetable
product which he at first supposed tt
be pumpkin or melon seeds, but found
to be the much harder seed Of the
Turkish sunAower (HeIi0nth'tS peren
njS). Their national diet consists OF
milk, kukuruz, (hominy, with butter
etc., and boiled mutton, and they seen
to feel that their Turkoman jaws neeC
something more substantial The school
boy habit Of gnawing pen-hOlders, fin
ger nails, etc, may have similar sig
nihcance. The Mimosa siliqua would
yield abundantly in our Southern States
and its sweet pods would make an eX'
cellent substitute for chewing gum
Our practice OF slipping ice-cold and
steaming hot drinks, turn about has
also very injudicious effect upon the
brittle substance that forms the enamel
of our teeth no porcelain glaze would
stand such abuse for any length oi
time, and experience has taught hunters
and dog fanciers that it destroys even
the bone-crushing fangs of the animal
from which our canine teeth derive
their name.