The Portland daily press., 1881-10-25
Hygiene of the Teeth.
IDr. Felix l.. oswald, ia Popular Science Monthly
for Noyember.l

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for November
A hard crust is the best possible dentifrice
never could get myself to believe in the nat
ural necessity of toothbrush. The African
nations, the Hindoos, the natives of Southern
Esrope, the South-Sea Islanders the Arabs
the South American vegetarians, in short,
three fourths of our fellew-men, besides our
next relatives, the frugivorous animals, have
splendid teeth without sozodont. 1 really be-
lieve that ours decay from sheer dsuse the
clearinghouse homo lives chiefly on pap
wants all his meats soft-boied, 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 a second, or rather third,
set of teeth. met one of them in nothern
Guatemala, and ascertaned 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
oorn-cake diet of his boyhood years. His teeth
had reappeared. as soon as their services were
called for, and would probably never have abb
sented themselves il a pap-diet had not made
them superfuous An artificial dentifrice 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 unexpected piece of bone. Every old dent
list knows hundreds of city customers whom the
daily use of toothbrush did not save from the
necessity of applying, before the end of the
forticth year, for complete "celluloid set
j do not say that soft toothbrush and such
dentifrices as oatmeal or burned arrow-root
can do any harm, but, for sanitary purposes,
such precautions must be supplemented by
dental exercise. Let child invigorate its teeth
BY chewing hard crust, or, better yet, a hand
full of est. Johns bread" or carob-beans the
edible pod of the MiDl0Sd Siliqud. Children
and whole tribes of the northern races seem to
feel an instructive desire to exercise their teeth
upon some solid substance, as pet squirrels will
gnaw ne furniture if you give them nut-ker-
nels instead of nuts. Thus Kohl tells us that
the natives of Southern Russia are addicted to
the practice of chewing vegetable product
which he at first supposed to be pumpkin or
melon seeds, but found to be the much harder
seed of the Turkish sunfower (Heiiantbus per-
ennis). Their national diet consists of milk,
kiltoEYuz (hominy, with butter, etc., and boiled
mutton, and they seem to feel that their Tur-
koman jaws need something more substantial.
The schoolboy habit of gnawing pen-holders,
fnger-nails, etc., may have similar signif-
canoe. The Minaosa siliqaa would yield alb
undautly in our Southern States, and its sweet
pods would make an excellent substitute for
chewing-gum. Our practice of slipping ice
cold and steaming-hot drinks turn about. has
also a very injurious effect upon the brittle
substance that forms the enamel of our teeth;
any length of time, and experience has taught
hunters aad dog-fanciers that it destroys even
the bone-crushing fangs of the animal from
which our canine teeth derive their name.