Perth Amboy evening news., 1903-07-21
PITCAIRN ISLAND TEETH.
aaI& the CbiIdren on the Lonely Pa
cIdc Isle MysteriOusIy Lose
Their IncisOrs.

The British admiralty, in coopera-
ton with several scientists and ply
Dicians, lately concluded an exceed
ingly interesting investigation con-
taucted for the purpose of ascertain
ing, if possible, why the members of
the colony on Pitcairn island have no
front teeth, says the Boston Globe.
While the Investigation was fruit
less so far as satisfactorily solving
the problem was concerned, it re-
vealed very peculiar condition
among the descendants of the mutt
neers of the ship Bounty, now living
on Pitcairn island, in the south Pa
cific ocean.
An official report of the investiga-
tion has been made to the lords of
the admiralty by Surgeon r. B..
Scribner, of his majesty's ship Shear
water. He says:
On the way from the landing place
to the settlement and going through
the settlement. | met many of the
inhabitants, and was very much
struck by the fact that many of them
were minus the front teeth of the up
per jaw.
The total population of the island
is 153. This number is thus made up
Males, IA, of whom 27 are married;
females, 70. Mr.. Christian very kind
ly collected together number of the
inhabitants for me to examine.
There were present SO in all. These
SO were very representative gath
ering, as there were IA adult males,
10 adult females, seven male children
and five females children present
Out of this number six men, three
women, four male children and three
female children showed the remark
able loss of front teeth. From these
figures one may say that so per cent.
of the people are affected, and that
there is practically no difference in
the sexes.
In all these cases, and especially in
the younger people, the remainder of
the teeth. e.. the back teeth of the
upper jaw and All the teeth of the
lower jaw-were quite sound, in fact,
remarkably good.
The incisors are apparently the on
ly teeth affected in this peculiar
manner-at all events, that was the
case in the people | saw. These
teeth break off owing to carries which
sets in in childhood. Mr.. Mccoy, a
dentist, informed me that this decay
commences soon after the permanent
II.
first attacks one of the middle. in
cisors.
Apparently, if the teeth in children
escape the peculiar form of carries,
they are not thus attacked in later
life. Mr.. Mccoy also informed me
that this dental trouble made its ap-
pearance for the first time among the
fourth generation of islanders, and
certainly three old men l saw of the
third generation did not present this
phenomenon.
The children of Mr.. Coffin, who
has been 22 years on the island, are
not affected. whereas the children of
Mr.. Warren, who settled on Pit
cairn island in 1864, were affected
Both Mr.. Coffin and Mr.. Warren mar
ried Pitcairn women.
The class of food eaten by the
islanders does not, l think, in any
way account for this early decay of
teeth. The people mostly live on
fruit, which is abundant, and consists
of oranges, pineapples, figs and ba-
nanas. The only flesh meats they
have are goats and fowls.
I was struck by their remarkably
healthy appearance. They do not
show any marked signs of degenera-
ton. tested sample of the drink
ing water, and found it to be of ex-
cellent quality and free from all i'm
purities. 1t contained no lime salts.