UNSOUND TEETH.

Thames Star, Volume XIV, Issue 4454, 14 April 1883, Page 2

UNSOUND TEETH.

The Aust-a!asian Medical Gazette writes :— lt In few cities of the world do people lose their teetu at so early »i age as in Sydney, notwittis'a.idins* that in compari on with other great cities the inhabitants are domesticated and not ■ addited to excess in eating, though it must be admMiei thai intemperance ia * oue form prevail? to a very lamentable exi,eut. It is rot uncommon far people who arrived in thii col-jny with teeth p rfcctly sound, or having only a few slightly decayed, to discover themselves, in the course of lour or five, years, with ba.-ely a sound tooth in either jaw. This cannot be accounted tjt ia connect t.on with the prevailing diet or habits of the people. In the judgment of the few medical residents of ihe *fity who have devoted any consideration 16 it, the cause is to be referred to the very small * proportion of mineral constituents con> tamed 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 rery similar in its constituents, as has been shown by analysis. As soft water it has its advantages, as every laundress knows. If it were made to pass through a filtering bed of limestone oefore delivery during the last 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.' 1 The same tendency of the teeth to early decay has long been noticed in New Zealand, and if it is less here than in New South Wales, our fellow colonists must be badly off indeed.