The herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1893-1900, 1898-09-25

say that the man OF the future Will nave
no use for teeth, and that, In the grad
| ual process of evolution, they will drop
out, so to speak To back up this the
ory, they can adduce arguments by the
ream. "Why does a horse walk on only
| one toe, and on the nail oG that?" asks
science. And then the answer comes
that evolution has deprived the horse
of four-fifths of his original stock Of
toes. He still has two or three disused
or rudimentary toes above the hoof.
The horse is better equipped as he Is
than he was when, little animal he
walked with his foot on the ground and
his toes sprawling out. And just so.
says science, the usefulness of teeth will
Disappear and the style of the future
will be to gum it.
Science tells us, in fact, that the hui
man race is already showing signs of
evolution toward the toothless period.
Primitive man had to depend, for his
animal food, upon his teeth and his jaw
muscles to tear the flesh of animals.
His teeth were very strong and they
lasted lifetime. Living in ante-dental
times, the loss of his teeth would have
been a prelude to starvation
Meat-eating will be thing Of the past
in the not very distant future, says SOL
erce. With nations doubling in popula-
ton every thirty or forty years we can
readily understand that the meat-eating
habit looks as if 1t would have to go.
1t is probably just as we'll. No doub,
steak eating has ruined many bright
prospects for the hereafter.
Even now, 1t must be admitted, the
usefulness Of teeth Is perceptibly d.
mnishing. The broad scope of the can
ming and preserving processes, together
with modern improvements in cookery,
have greatly simplified mastication. We
think it safe to say, by way of example,
that the average railway traveller, with
a ten-minute chance for refreshments,
can today surround as much food within
the limit as his father could have done
In half an hour forty years ago.
But how will 1t look? A whole COM
mundty going about in the manner of
man, or woman, who has had the mis-
fortune to shed teeth while enjoying
plunge in the ocean. Fashion, however,
will control in this case, as II does in
everything else that human beings wear.
When evolution has done the final dental
work. a Rip Van Wrinkle of the tooth
period would look as strange as dime
museum freak.
Think, however, of the priceless bene-
fits that our remote successors will en-
10Y in toothless times. No cutting of
teeth for the baby; no hunting in the
dark for the paregoric bottle by the
sleepy father. No aches for the adult;
no barbarian to torture him or her with
diabolcal instruments. No necessity for
RETAINING from laughter, or from sneez-
ing, lest your misfit work of art drops
out. No advertising In the newspapers
of dental work to swap for old clothes.
OF course, all food will be adapted to
the toothless period. Even the army
hard tack for soldiers will be displaced
by more succulent nutriment. There
will be NO necessity for mastication.
The time may come, in fact, when man
kind will receive their nourishment after
the manner of the patent chicken-feed-
ing machine. That process merely in
wolves the opening VT mouth, the APP
plicaton of a tube, and the squirting of
a square meal.