The Cheyenne daily leader. [volume] (Cheyenne, Wyo.) 1870-1884, 1882-02-26
Hygiene Of tbs Teeth.


A hard crust is the best pc ,sible dem
tifricc. l never cOulI get myself to
believe in the natural necessity Of q
toothbrush. The African n%ationS, the
Hindoos, tho natives of Southern
Europe. the South Sen Islanders tho
Arabs. the South American vcgetarians,
in short, Ihree-fourtLs of our fellow
men, besides our next relatives, tho
f~rugiynruu5 animals, have splendid
teeth without sozodont. I~really believe
that ours decay from sheer disuse; the
clearinghouse homo lives chiefly on
pap-wauts all his meats soft-boiled,
and growls ut cold biscuit or an under
done p%otatoe; in other words, he dele
gates to the cook the proper functions
of his teeth. We hear occasionally of
old men getting q second, or rather
third, st of teeth. met one of them
in Northern Guatemala, and ascertained
that he had become toothless during q
twelve years s~ojourn in a seaport town,
and that he got his new set upon his re-
turn to his native village, where circum-
stances Obliged him to resume the hard
corn-cake diet of his boyhood years.
His teeth had renppeared Us soon as
their services were called for, and would
probably never have absented them
selves If a pap-diet had not made them
superfiuous.
An artificial dentifrice will certainly
keep the teeth white, but that does not
prevent their premature decay; disuse
gradually ~spftrns their substance, till
one fine Ivy the hasli-cater snaps his
best incisor upon an unexpected piece
of bone. Every old dentist knows hun
dreds OF CIV customers whom the daily
uso of n otli-brush did not save from
the NJ 7 ~n ?, before the end of the for
Lieth l'ar. f.r u complete ''celluloil
set" - not say that p soft tooth
brush g It s;'cl dentifrices as oatmeal
or burnni a'row-voot can do any harm,
but. f"r . itary purposes, such precau-
tons L.. , ho supplemented by dental
exerci 90,
Let st c,.li invigorate its teeth by
chewir's - l'arl crust, or, better yet, a
handel # st. Johns bread" or
carob-l' IS. tho edible pod of the NJ
mosa qua. Children and whole
tribes G uu Northern races seem to
feel ~ Stinctive desire 10 exercise
their Ice. upon some solid substance,
as pet Cii: rels will gnaw the furniture
if you jso them nut-kernels instead of
nuts. Taus Kohl tells us that the ma
VI ''OuAntln INuS5lt are duulCIeu
to the practice of chewing a vegetable
product which he at first supposed to
be pumpkin or melon seeds, but found
to be the much harder seed of the Tur-
kish sunilower (Helianthus ~perennis).
Their rational diet consists of milk,
kukuruz (hominY, with butter, etc.,,
and boiled mutton, and they seem to
feel that their Turkoman Jaws need
something more substantial. The
s%choolboy habit of gnawing pen-hold-
ers, fi~nger-nails, ETC., may have a SIM
liar significance. The Mimosa siliqua
would yield %abundantly in our Southern
States, and its sweet pods would make
an excellent substitute for chewing
gum. Our practice of slipping ice-cofd
and steaming-hot drinks, turn about,
has also a very injurious effect upon
the brittle substance that forms the
enamel of our teeth; no porcelain glaze
would stand such abuse for any length
Of 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 de-
rive their name.-Dr. Felir L. Os0ald,
an Popular Science Monthly.