The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1889-11-21
HEALTH HINTS
For Old and Young.
by FELIX L. OSWALD, M. D..
Author of physical Education; Household
Remedies"; "The Bible of Nature" eto.
CHAPTER XIII.
TOnTuACuE

Remedies"; THE Bible of Nature" eto.
CHAPTER XLIT.
TooTHACHE.
| Moral philosophers have noticed among other
| paradoxes of the human heart that :" the pain
following the commission of wrong bears no
proportion to the eDormity of the guilt, and that
| q mere breach of etiquet will often cost the
offender greater distress of selfreproach than
the violation of every moral precept in the
decalog."
A similar disproportion often surprises the
student of physical pathology. slight burn,
involving the destruction of half a square inch
of tissues that will be replaced before the end
of the week may keep the victim awake for
whole night, while the irreparable waste of
tubercIe stricken lungs proceeds almost I'M
noticed. Heartdisease may insidously pro-
gress to the very brink of "A fatal issue, while
small hole in tooth that can be tolerably well
spared may drive man almost delirious with
pain. The traveller Kohl, in his account Of q
sojourn among the Lake Superior Indians, re-,
marks that latter his 18th year an 0jibway
boy would think it disgrace to case his dis
tress by audible laments," and then adds
that the only time no saw an old warrior OF that
tribe shed tears was during an unbearable
paroxysm of toothache Hollow teeth and jaw
| bone rheumatism have driven philosophers TO
| tho verge of suicide; and here is a story
of Charles the Fifth of Spain Ia lifelong
martyr to toothaches), which is vouched for by
that potentate's own tutor aud confessor. One
day the victor OF Pavia happened to cross
bridge near a little market town in the Austrian
| Alps when his attention was attracted by
the groans of man who lay Mt the roadside,
writhing in evidontagony. Hold on minute"
the Emperor called out TO his driver; Jump
down, will you, aud let's find out what is the
matter with that fellow" He is in bad a fix"
reported the coachman, after brief invostiga-
ton 1.-THE poor devil fell off that bridge and
broke his leg" lis that ALI ?" said the En-
peFor. Never mind, then; drive on. thought
he had the toothache."
French officer who had passed Summer
in a lonely camp among the Algerian highlands
at considerable distance from the hospital of
his regiment, told mo that one night he saw
his Adjutant jump out of bed. hold his head
over q washbasn, aud with q common jack
knife make desperate attempt to break an
aching tooth out of his own jaw.
At first sight the agony of such paroxysms
seems really out of all proportion to the inn
portanee of the risk involved by the possible
| loss of one tooth out of a score of sound ones;
but Nature never acts without an adequate
| purpose, and her indirect object in tho en-
| phatic protest expressed by the torture of an
aching tooth is the enforcement of warning
against dietetic habits that may result In some
thing worse than the loss of defective molar.
Carries of the teeth may assume the form of an
all remedies but one-the complete removal Of
| the cause.
CARRIES AND ITS CAUSES.
But what Is that cause9 Is decay of tho
teeth a hereditary disorder resisting all Rt-
| tempts at individual reform1 For there can
be no doubt that sorupulous care in avoiding
candy and sweetmeats 1.-THE repnted proximate
Of caries) often fails TO arrest the progress
OF the evil, and that even the dilircnt use Of a
ravages. Besides, there seems really nothing
intrinsicaly wrong in following the bent of an
! instructive craving for a saccharine diet Young
children are naturally as fond of sweetmeats rs
/ kittens are Of milk, aud sugar forms very
/ large ingredient in the chemical composition of
two articles of food which undoubtedly formed
important items in the bill of fare Of our nature
abiding Darwinian ancestors. viz. ripe fruit and
! honey. Many scmi.civlized nations the Abys-
| sinians. Maiays and Mexican half brecds) eat
| large Jumps OF sugar with every principal meal,
and apparently without any risk TO the sound
ness Of their dental organism. is the supposed
| doetcrions effect of candy due to the unwhole-
some admixtures OF the commercial article
Partly perhaps, and IN greater measure
probably also TO the influence Of gastric acidity
developed by the excessive use Of saccharine
/ food in that special form. Bat II is wholly
certain that carries Of the teeth has other and
more important causes. One of those causes Is
] our ADHnTu nhbiL Oh SWALLOWING our 1904 htGaTn-
ing hot. and Of bringing cold aud hot substances
and fluids in alternate contact with the brittle
| enamel Of our teeth. There are coffee topers and
tea tippleB who do not believe they get their
| moneys worth IL they cannot have their favor
| tie narcotics served seething hot-hot enough,
| In fact. 10 crack the glaze OF tho best china
cup. That compound OF sugar, stimnlhnls aud
raging caloric they sip with deliberate slow
ness. and after the full development OF this
| habit indulge in "a number of cups sufficient
| 20 keep their gums parboiled for half hours to-
Rcther. COnfcctioners and bakers arc among
| the best customers of our modern dentists
and that circumstance may have helped 10
arouse suspicion against tho sanitary tendency
OF their 6weetmeats; but IL is "a suggestive cir.
cuInstance that. with rare exceptions bakers
get very early addicted 10 the coffee habit In it's
most mischieyons forms. Their apprentices
have 10 got up early in tho morning
perhaps, than any other iaborers Of their age
aud almost invariably contract the habit Of
fighting drOwBiness with its popular specific
strong, black coffee Besides they work ia an
atmosphere far surprising tho temperature OF
the torrid zone and, as usual. the influence Of
heat stimulates tho progress Of contagious dis.
orders.
Alcohol, too has been suspected Of causing
the premature decay of the teeth but dentists
would be able 10 attest the fact that women on
the whole suffer more from tOothache than per.
sons OF the incorporate sex, aud G is probable
that distilled liquors form only minor and in
direct cause OF dental disordors-at least since
hot punch has gone out of fashion. IL Is true,
however, that chronic alcoholism may have o
tendency Of that sort by lowering the general
vitality Of the patient. There are certain dis
eases that cause rapid loss Of the teeth and
hair by what physicians call an asthenic.con-
dition Of the system, j. O., a general reduction
Of vital vigOr, which often in few weeks
evolves symptoms resembling the effects OF ex-
treme old age.
DIR. Emil Kucster, OF Vienna few years ago
called attention To the rapid increase of dental
marasmus" which he ingenionsly explained on
the theory that Nature refuses 10 make appro-
priations for the support of supernuons organs
If we fail To exercise any special SGT Of muscles
he argues, those muscles waste away if we wear
hats and nght-eaps. we lose our natural scalp.
cover, and get prematurey bald. Now, our
modern bill of fare has made our teeth almost
snpcriuous Cookery anticipates the functions
Of mastcati0n. Instead of tho tough ash
baked barley cakes of our f0reiathers we use
spongy biscuits. Instead Of boar steaks we
serve fried sausage. We turn apples into apple.
butter, currants into cnrrant jelly, fish into
! fish balls, beef into hash. This Is an age of
pap. Kestaurateurs vic in saving their hurried
/, patrons the trouble Of chewing their food. and
our teeth retire from business for want of en-.
ployment.
, There is a good deal of logic in that theory,
. aud as a general rule we might really maintain
that in every nation the soundness Of the nat.
nrai mastieating apparatus is proportonate To