Popular Science Monthly 



237 



Care should be taken to follow the curve 



of the gum with the entire face of the 



tooth-brush 



Floss silk, SO this physician has 

 noted, is another great corrective for 

 ailing teeth. The silk should be passed 

 between teeth, across gums and drawn 

 rapidly, even roughly. The discom- 

 fort may be slight, but it is sufficient 

 to cause most people to avoid the prac- 

 tice, although they would perhaps be 

 somewhat more enthusiastic towards 

 this particular tooth cleanser if they 

 knew that it would help greatly to- 

 wards avoiding gout, rheumatism, val- 

 vular heart disease and ulcer of the 

 stomach. 



Concerning the general mechanics 

 of. tooth brushing, there are three im- 

 portant actions to be borne in mind. 

 The first is the rotary motion, where- 

 by all the gums and the teeth in front 

 of the second molars are cleansed by 

 a vigorous whirling motion. Second, 

 the drawing motion wherin the mid- 

 dle of the brush is placed behind the 

 wisdom teeth and drawn vigorously 

 across the gums. Third, the drawing 

 motion wherein the brush is placed 

 back of the last molar and drawn 

 sharply forward along the gum margins 

 and the teeth. 



It may be mentioned that healthy 

 gums can stand the same vigorous 

 friction as can be borne with impun- 

 ity by the finger nails. 



Hard-Pressed Germany Invents 

 New Foods 



POTATO sausages are being made in 

 Germany which are said to taste a 

 great deal like blood sausages, and are 

 not a great deal lower in food value. 

 The price of the potato sausages (called 

 also K-sausages) is much less than the 

 blood sausages. 



It was found possible in Germany to 

 purify bacteria-carrying oysters by al- 

 lowing a stream of pure, fresh, filtered 

 sea-water to run over them, in tanks, for 

 four or five days. Xo sickness resulted 

 from eating these oysters. 



Study of the milk marketed in Zittau, 

 Germany, up to the present time of the 

 war shows that scarcity of good fodder 

 for the cattle does not decrease the fat 

 content of the milk, but only the quan- 

 tity of the milk. 



The middle bristles of the brush should 



be placed at the back of the third upper 



molar and drawn briskly forward along 



the gum margin 



This movement will clean the backs of 

 the teeth which are too often neglected 



In Germany the comparative quality 

 of the milk can be decided by the use 

 of certain bacteria. Five are used, 

 called respectively and alarmingly the 

 "Danish streptococci,"' "Jaroslawer di- 

 plococci," "Guntherschen diplococci," 

 "Russian lactic acid streptococci" and 

 "Bacillus bulgaricus.'' The Danish strep- 

 tococci can live only in fairly good milk, 

 the Jaroslawer diplococci in worse, and 

 so on down the list until we reach the 

 Bacillus bulgaricus, which is tough 

 enough to live in very bad milk. How- 

 ever, there is milk so bad that not even 

 the accommodating Bacillus bulgaricus 

 can live in it. 



An elderberry wine is being made in 

 ("lermany which is so like grape wine 

 that it can easily be used as an adulter- 

 ant of grape wine. It can be detected 

 by chemical analysis, however. 



New methods for determining husk 

 residue in meals and flours have to be 

 used, since the German war orders to 

 grind more of the husk into the flours. 



