96 COSMETICS. 



respect to dentifrices, again, much error prevails. They are 

 pretty often mechanical, often chemical. Some are com- 

 pounded of hard, gritty materials, that wear away the enamel 

 and mechanically abrade the gums ; others hold chemical 

 agents, that whiten the enamel-surface of the teeth indeed, 

 but at the price of destruction. Long before any admonition 

 conveyed by pain, caries will set in. The fact can only be 

 determined l?y examination by some intelligent dentist. Now 

 is the time for preservation by filling, and not when toothache 

 has established itself. A dentist is not a mere cosmetic or 

 beauty-artist, as he is too commonly regarded ; he is a phy- 

 sician who works by giving effect to ordinary powers of diges- 

 tion instead of physic. The importance of mastication as a 

 preliminary to digestion can hardly be overstated; and, of 

 course, the perfection of this mechanical act will be correla- 

 tive with the perfection of teeth. The remark is common 

 enough that dentists are not what they should be ; not reliable 

 as men of honour ; chiefly more intent on running-up long 

 bills. The opprobrium is far too sweeping ; there are honour- 

 able and dishonourable dentists, as there are honourable and 

 dishonourable doctors and lawyers. Wherever many oppor- 

 tunities for cheating exist, many provocatives to dishonour, 

 there some men will be found to take advantage of them. As 

 regards dentists, the proposition may in a general way be laid 

 down, that the higher-priced men are in the end the cheapest. 

 The work of such may ever be relied upon as the best ; and 

 to patients who may be unable to pay the full honorarium, 

 such gentlemen are ever. considerate. 



One class of dentists are to be avoided those who exhibit 

 specimen-cases in druggists' shops, and put brass-plates on 

 druggists' doors. These practitioners, vaunting themselves 

 as being economical, are the very reverse; they are most 

 expensive ; and it could not well be otherwise, as they have 

 to divide profits with the exhibiting druggists. In teeth- 

 economy the principle should be established of keeping a tooth 



