SUCCESS OF THE YEAE. 249 



possessor of living teeth dreads only less than the 

 rack itself ; and they do not have to be pulled out, 

 with an agony comparable to the effect of drawing 

 the entire brain out through the hole at the roots. 



From my experience before and since my acci 

 dent,. I should certainly advise my fellow-creatures 

 to have as little to do with real teeth as possible, and 

 to substitute the imitation as soon as they can. There 

 may be a certain amount of suffering in having teeth, 

 and especially sound ones, extracted, but the satisfac 

 tion of being finally rid of the troublesome things 

 more than pays for the temporary annoyance. A 

 natural set will become dirty in spite of endless 

 scrubbing with the tooth-brush ; some are invariably 

 longer than others; there are projections and depres 

 sions; wherever they lap, tartar settles; inside it is 

 impossible to get at them at all, and they compel a 

 half-yearly interview with the dentist, from which 

 one comes away greatly unnerved. Their substitutes 

 are a great improvement to one s personal appear 

 ance, and never cause the slightest inconvenience, 

 besides saving hours in cleaning, that, in a long life, 

 amount to an aggregate of years. The new teeth 

 were so far superior to those that they replaced, that 

 they are valued on the credit side of the account at 

 a hundred dollars, showing a clear profit of one hun- 

 L2 



