The bee., 1883-01-27
THE HOME DOCTOR.
Hygiene Of the Teeth.


A hard crust is the best possible
dentifrice. / never could get myself
to believe in the natural necessity of
toothbrush. The African nations, the
Hindoos, the natives of Southern
Europe, the South Sea islanders, the
Arabs, the South American yegeta-
rians, in short, three-fourths OF our
fellow-men, besides our next relatives,
the frugivorous animals, have splendid
teeth without sozodont. really be-
lieve that ours decay from sheer dis
use; the clearinghouse 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 a Sec
ond, or rather third. set of teeth. ]
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 his bOyhood years. His
teeth had reappeared, as soon as their
services were called for, and would
probably never have absented them
selves if a pap-diet had not made them
superfluouS. An artificial dentifrica
will certainly keep the teeth white,
but that does not prevent their prena-
ture 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 hundreds Of city
customers whom the daily use Of a
tooth brush did not save from the he
cessity of applying, before the end of
the fortieth year, for complete
"cellul0id set l do not say that a
soft tooth brush and such dentifrices
as oatmeal or burned arrowro0t can
do any harm, but, for sanitary pur-
poses, such precautions must be sup.
plemented by dental exercise. Let a
child invigorate its teeth by chewing a
hard crust, or, better yet. handful of
"St. Johns bread or carob beans, the
edible pod of the mimosa siliqua. Chill
1ren and whole tribes of the northern
races seem to feel an instructive desire
20 exercise their teeth upon some solid
substance, as pet squirrels will gnaw
the furniture if you give them nut ker-
nels instead of nuts. Thus Kohl tells
rs 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 (helian-
thus perennis). Their national diet
consists of milk, kukuruz (hom-
my, with butter, etc), and
boiled mutton, and they seem to
feel that their Turkoman jaws need
something more substantial. The
Bchoolboy habit of gnawing pen-hold-
ers, fnger-nails, etc, may have SINH
lar significance. The mimosa siliqua
would yield abundantly in our South
ern States, and its sweet pods would
make an excellent substitute for chew
ing-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; 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
Popular Science NOnthly.