WHY DO NOT OUR TEETH LAST?

Westport Times, Volume VI, Issue 966, 30 April 1872, Page 3

WHY DO NOT OUR TEETH LAST?

That our teeth are made perfect, if the right materials are furnished, there cannot be a doubt. But are the necessary elements furnished to our children as they are to the young of ?tner animals ? And do we not subject our teeth to deleterious influences from which animals that obey their natural instincts are exempt ? The forming young of other animals, while depending on the mother, get lime and potash, andsilex, and all the other elements of which we teeth are composed, from the Wood or milk of the mother, and she B«ts them from the food which nature provides containing these elements in heir natural proportions. But where the child in its forming state ?etthese necessary elements, whose "other lives principally on starch, and and sugar, neither of which "Mains a particle of lime, phosphorus,

or ailex ? Nature performs no miracles. She makes teeth as glass is made, by combinihgjthe elements which compose them according to her own chemical principles. And this illustration is more forcible because the composition of the enamol of the teeth and of glass is very nearly identical, both, at least, requiring the combination of silex with some alkaline principle. If, then the mother of an unborn or nursing infant lives on whito bread and butter, pastry, and confectionery, whijh contain no silex and very little of other elements which compose the teeth, nothing short of a miracle can give her a child with good teeth, and especially with teeth enamelled. But what articles of food will make good teeth ? Good milk will make good teeth, for it makes them for calves. Good meat will make good teeth, for it makes them for lions. Good vegetables and fruit will make good teeth, for they make them for monkeys. Good corn, oats, barley, wheat, rye, and indeed everything that grows, will make good teeth, in their naked state, no element being taken out, for everyone of them does make teeth for horses, cows, sheep, or some other animal. But starch, sugar, lard, or butter will not make good teeth. You tried them with your child's first teeth, and failed, and your neighbours have tried them, and the result is that a man or woman at forty with good sound teeth is a very rare exception.