POPULAR FALLACIES. 357 



All acids and alkalis, like the aforementioned ingredients, are absolutely 

 dangerous in a majority of cases. Like stimulating beverages, they may 

 not show their bad effects in a day or week, but in a few months or yeara 

 they become uncompromising destroyers. Borax and alum, for their as- 

 tringent qualities, may be used temporarily in certain aphthous affections 

 aud mercurial sore mouth. They should be mixed with honey, sugar or sage. 



For everybody's daily use, for keeping the teeth clean and the gums 

 healthy,amild astringent, antacid, antalkaline, styptic wash is decidedly the 

 most pleasant, cheajDest and only safe dentifrice known to the leaders of 

 the profession. If properly ]3repared it dissolves the mucous calculi and 

 other injurious secretions, and all can be readily removed from the mouth 

 by the gentle use of a soft brush and rinsing with water. 



In cases of predisj)osition to formation of tartar — from viscid secretions 

 arising from disordered stomach — precipitated chalk should be used, once 

 a day, in connection with the wash. Always cleanse well between and on 

 the inner sides of the teeth. Always use well-made brushes — those having 

 plenty of soft bristles or badger's hair. For children, very small and soft 

 brushes. Children's first teeth should be kept clean. They should be 

 taught to brush their teeth every time they wash and comb their hair. 

 "Cleanliness is next to Godliness," and the neglect of cleanliness is the di- 

 rect cause of so much " toothcarpentering " being required. "Delays are 

 dangerous and expensive." 



POPULAR FALLACIES. 



Night air and damp weather are held in great horror by multitudes of 

 persons who are sickly or of weak constitutions; consequently, by avoiding 

 the night air, and damp weather, and changeable weather, and weather that is 

 considered too hot or too cold, they are kept wnthin doors the much largest 

 portion of their time, and as a matter of course continue invalids, more and 

 more ripening for the grave every hour ; the reason is, they are breathing 

 an impure atmosphere nineteen-twentieths of their whole existence. 



As nothing can wash us clean but pure water, so nothing can cleanse the 

 blood, nothing can make health-giving blood, but the agency of pure air. 

 So great is the tendency of the blood to become impure in consequence of 

 waste and useless matters mixing with it as it passes through the body, that 

 it requires a hogshead of air every hour of our lives to unload it of these 

 impurities ; but in proportion as this air in vitiated, in such proportion does 

 it infiallibly fail to relieve the blood of these impurities, and impure blood 

 is the foundation of all disease. The great fact that those who are out of 

 doors most, summer and winter, day and night, rain or shine, have the best 

 health the world over, does of itself falsify the general impression that night 

 air or any other out- door air is unhealthy as compared with in-door air at 

 the same time. 



Air is the great necessity of life; so much so, that if deprived of it for a 



