410 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



the union of earthy matters with gelatine. All our bones pos- 

 sess the power of recuperating themselves if they are broken, 

 but teeth do not ; once fractured they never grow again- Bones 

 after death, moulder away and soon return to earth ; teeth ap- 

 pear to resist decomposition and defy chemicals, as their tissue 

 is compact and hard. They are covered with enamel, which is 

 semi transparent, white, glossy, and of crystalline structure, 

 composed of 



Animal matter and water 1 



Phosphate of lime 85.3 



Carbonate of lime _ 8 



Fluate of lime 3.2 



Phosphate of magnesia 1.5 



Soda and muriate of soda 1 



100 



Teeth have blood vessels, nerves, and absorbents, so minute 

 that microscopists have failed to trace them, but physiology has 

 proved that they exist. 



Teething is the most critical period of a child's life, as has 

 been proved by the fact that half the deaths of children under 

 two years, are caused by diseases induced by teething. At which 

 period the child becomes irritated and feverish, and requires that 

 the mother, or nurse, should be very particular in their diet, for 

 whatever affects the nurse slightly, affects the child intensely. I 

 have lost calves before now, that were poisoned by something the 

 mother had eaten, which did not affect her in the least. Our 

 newspapers teem with accounts of children who die by teething, 

 when in fact death is superinduced by exciting and stimulating 

 food eaten by the nurse at this critical period in the child's life. 

 In the West Indies, among the blacks, who live chiefly on a vege- 

 table diet, death rarely occurs in childhood, and the children cut 

 their teeth without pain. This would certainly be the case here, 

 if mothers were less desirous of gratifying their artificial desires 

 for stimulating food. The milk from the breast is the only food, 

 medicine, or drink, which will be desired during the first few 

 months of infantile life, nor should they, on any account, have 

 anything else until they cut their teeth. The process of teeth- 

 ing would then no longer, as now, be the source of disease and 

 death. To dentition in children the following diseases are refer- 



