COLONIAL TEETH.

Patea Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 1031, 7 May 1883, Page 2

COLONIAL TEETH.

The Australasian Medical Gazette writes :•—ln few cities in the world dp people lose their teeth at so early an age as in Sydney, notwithstanding that in comparison with other great ci ties the' inhabitants ;are!’-domesticated■ and; -riot addicted to excess in' eating, though it mast be admitted . that intemperance in one form prevails to a very lamentable extent. It is not uncommon for people" ■who arrived in this colony with teeth perfectly sound, or having only a few slightly decayed, to discover themselves in. the course of four or - five years, with barely a sound tooth in either jaw. This cannot be accounted for -in connection with the - prevailing diet or habits of the people. In the judgment, of the few "medical of the city who have devoted any. consideration to it, .. the cause is tot be : referred to the very small proportion of , mineral constituents contained -in the Botany water. Practically, the Sydney people drink rain water, the. watershed consisting for the most part of sandhills. The Nepean water will be very similar m its constituents, as has- been; shown, b& analysis^ : , As soft water it has its advantages, as every laundress knows. If -it were, made to pass through a filtering bed of limestone before delivery during the la|t two or three days of the week when it Is more required- for portable than for laundry purposes, it could be charged with those . inorganic materials so essential to the growth and maintenance of the bony framework of the body, and not less so of the teeth, which follow the same laws of change and growth.” The same tendency of "the" teeth to early decay has Jong -been noticed in New Zealand, and if it is less here than in New South Wales our fellow colonists most be badly off indeed.