The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1882-03-03
The Hygiene Of the Teeth.

A hard crust is the best possible dent
ifrice. never could get myself to- be-
lieve in the natural necessity of tooth
brush. The African Lations, 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 relative, the frugiyorous ami
NAL, have splendid teeth without sozo-
don't I really believe ours decay from
sheer disuse; the boarding-hous 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 occa-
sionally of old men getting second, or
rather third set of teeth. met one
Of them in Northern Guatemala, and
ascertained that he had become toothless
during twelve-year sojourn in a sea-
port town, and that he got his new set
upon his return to his native village,
when circumstances compelled him to
resume the hard corn-cake diet of his
boyhood years. His teeth had reap
peared as soon as their services were
called for, and would probably never
have absented themselves if a pap-diet
had not made them superfuous. An
artificial dentrifice will certainly keep
the teeth white, but that does not pre-
vent 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 dentist knows hun
dreds of city customers whom the daily
use of toothbrush did not save from
the necessity of applying, before the end
of the fortieth year, for a complete
''celluloid set" I do not say that a soft
toothbrush and such dentrifices as oat-
meal or burntarrow-root can do any
harm, but for sanitary purposes such
precautions must be supplemented by
dental exercise. Let child lnvIgorate
its teeth by chewing hard crust, or
better vet. handful of est. Johns
bread" or carob beans, the edible pod
of the Mimosa siliqua. Children and
whole tribes of the northern race seem
to feel an instructive 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 vegetable pro-
duct which he at first supposed to be
pumpkin or melon-seeds, but found to be
the much harder seed of the Turkish sun
flower. Their national 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
school-boy habit of gnawing penholders,
fnger-nails, etc., may have similar
significance The mimosa siliqua would
yield abundantly in our Southern States,
and its sweet pods would make an excel
lent substitute for chewing gum. Our
practice of slipping ice-cold and steam
ing hot drinks, turn about, has also very
injurious effects upon the brittle sub
stance that forms the enamal 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 derive their name.