414 TRANSACTIONS OP THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



injure the teeth, so do excessively cold liquids, a lump of ice 

 held in the mouth for a few seconds will cause excessive pain, so 

 will a spoonful of hot water. Fluids of a higher temperature 

 than our blood should not be taken into the mouth. You often 

 see persons eat a hot dinner, and then indulge in ice cream, which 

 practice will ultimately produce decay in teeth. The alternate 

 use of cold and hot substances is always injurious, not only to 

 the teeth, but the whole animal economy of man. The con- 

 struction of human teeth shows that man was originally intended 

 to be a vegetable eater, the teeth of monkeys and apes more 

 nearly resemble ours, than any other animal, and they are known 

 to be frugivorous. 



The primeval races of man did not eat meat, the Athenians 

 and Arcadians lived on figs and acorns. The Lex Licinia and 

 Lex Fannia of the Romans on food, permitted meat to be used 

 in very small quantities. Lycurgus, the great law giver, forbade 

 his subjects the use of fatted meat, for the reason that it tended 

 to corrupt their natures, destroy their bodies, and ruin their 

 teeth. 



Porphyry of Tyre, the platonist, said that robbers, tyrants, 

 and murderers, never proceeded from those living on vegetables; 

 but invariably from meat eaters. Porphyry likewise says the 

 ancient Syrians and Greeks lived entirely on a vegetable diet. 



Lord Bacon said that it was approved by experience that a 

 spare and almost Pythagorean diet, such as is either prescribed 

 by the strictest monastic life, or practiced by hermits, is most 

 favorable to sound teeth and long life. The Eastern Christians 

 who retired into the deserts, lived on tAvelve ounces of vegetable 

 food, and cold water ad libitum, per day. 



St. Anthony lived 105 years on bread, water and herbs; James, 

 the hermit, on similar diet, lived 104 years; Arsenius, 120 years ; 

 Romouldus, 120 years. Spotswood says that St. Mungo, after 

 whom the celebrated well in Wales is named, lived to 185 years, 

 he never tasted wine, and always slept on the ground. Henry 

 Jenkins lived 169 years on a low, simple diet. Thomas Parr 

 lived 152 years on bread, milk and cheese. 



Dr. Listen mentions eight persons in the South of England, 

 the oldest of whom was 140, and the youngest 100 years. I 

 suppose all these people had good teeth, otherwise their food 

 would not have been well masticated, and indigestion would have 

 destroyed them in early life. 



