284 November 1748. 



nothing was good, in their opinion, unlefs they 

 could eat it as faft as it came from the fire. This 

 is likewife the cafe with the women i:- the coun- 

 try, who lofe their teeth much fooner and more 

 abundantly than the men. They drink tea in 

 greater quantity, and much oftener, in the morn- 

 ing, and even at noon, when the employment of 

 the men will not allow them to fit at the tea- 

 table. Befides that, the Englijhmen care very 

 little for tea, and a bowl of punch is much more 

 agreeable to them. When the Englijh women 

 drink tea, they never pour it out of the cup into 

 the fauccr, but drink it hot as it is out of the 

 former. The Indian women, in imitation of 

 them, fwallow the tea in the fame manner. On 

 the contrary, thofe Indians, whofe teeth are found, 

 never eat any thing hot, but take their meat either 

 quite cold, or only juft milk warm. 



I ASKED the Swediflo church-warden in Phi- 

 ladelphia, Mr. Eengtfon, and a number of old 

 Swedes, whether their parents and countrymen 

 had likewife loft their teeth as foon as the Ame- 

 rican colonifts ; but they told me that they had 

 preferved them to a very great age. Bengtfon 

 afTured me, that his father, at the age of feventy, 

 cracked peach ftones and the black walnuts with 

 his teeth, notwithftanding their great hardnefs, 

 which at this time no body dares to venture at 

 that age. This confirms what I have before 

 faid, for at that time the ufe of tea was not yet 

 known in North America. 



No difeafe is more common here, than that 

 which the Englijh call fever and ague, which is 

 fometimes quotidian, tertian, or quartan. But 



it 



