94 COSMETICS. 



month ; these were followed by the canines, which appeared 

 between the fourteenth and twentieth months. The posterior 

 molars were the last, and being the most uncertain as to time, 

 one cannot specify when they came for any particular indi- 

 vidual, say any time between the eighteenth and thirty-sixth 

 months. 



The second dentition consists in the replacement of the 

 deciduous, or milk, teeth by the second or permanent set. It 

 usually commences about the seventh or eighth year. The 

 gums of the new teeth, however, are prepared ; ready, and 

 waiting, a long time before this. The middle incisors are 

 first shed and renewed ; then the lateral incisors. Next are 

 shed the anterior or milk molars, to be replaced by the anterior 

 bicuspid. About a year afterwards the posterior milk molars 

 fall out, being replaced by other bicuspids. The canines are 

 the last of the milk-teeth to be exchanged. Next year the 

 second pair of true molars will appear ; but the third pair, or 

 denies sapientice otherwise wisdom-teeth may come at any 

 subsequent period. 



It has been already stated that, in exceptional cases, a 

 third set of teeth has been known to come. Looking over 

 the records of extreme old age, it will be remarked that any 

 considerable extension of life beyond ninety has often been 

 accompanied by the growth of one or more of a third set of 

 teeth. A remarkable instance of this I find narrated by Dr. 

 Slare, in a book written by him in advocacy of a saccharine 

 diet, and published in 1715. Most of us are aware that 

 amongst certain people sugar has the evil repute of destroy- 

 ing the teeth of persons much addicted to its use, unjustly, 

 I believe, and have already recorded. I am not aware 

 that the imputation rests on any firmer basis than that of 

 the economical spirit of thrifty housekeepers. In the early 

 days of sugar the teeth-destroying prejudice against sugar 

 was much stronger than now. As an aid towards confuting 

 that prejudice, Dr. Slare the great sugar-advocate of the last 



