Stature of the Men of Roxburgh and Selkirk. 323 



Some of the causes which have been suggested for the 

 deterioration are these : — Early marriages, and immaturity of 

 parents of both sexes ; marriages being entered on with in- 

 adequate means for the support of a family ; mothers frequently 

 continuing to work in the mills, etc., their children being thus 

 insufficiently attended to ; women having little knowledge of 

 housekeeping or cooking ; the excessive use, as an article of diet 

 for both parents and children, of bad and improperly prepared 

 tea ; the practice of smoking by young boys. There is another 

 point which may be adverted to. Twenty years ago or so, one 

 could hardly fail to observe the extremely defective teeth of the 

 young men and young women of the Border towns : — to see one 

 with a good set of teeth was a rare exception. The cause of 

 this, or how far it may be a cause or an effect of physical de- 

 generation, need not be discussed ; but that it has an important 

 bearing on the question of physique is very certain. An 

 eminent medical authority — Sir James Crichton Browne — in a 

 recently delivered lecture on the subject, says: — "I am not 

 going to argue that sound teeth are the passports to power, or 

 that biting and grinding capacity has determined the course of 

 history ; but this I will maintain, that no nation has ever climbed 

 to pre-eminence on carious teeth, or can retain its pre-eminence 

 when its teeth are no more, and that it behoves a conquering 

 people jealously to look to its teeth, and to keep them, not less 

 than its weapons, bright and sharp. If I might alter Goldsmith 

 slightly, I would declare : — 



111 fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, 

 Where gums aoonmulate, and teeth decay. 



It is not an edentulous race that will finally possess the 

 world. Decay of the teeth implies imperfect mastication, 

 delayed digestion, impaired assimilation, and a whole train 

 of derangements which embitter and sometimes shorten 

 life." 



The defect in question may not now be so obvious to sight as 

 at one time it was, but the reason probably is that a whole 

 regiment of dentists, as appears from the local newspapers, 

 nowadays pursue their calling in the Border towns. Let it 

 be hoped that the instruments thus artificially provided for 

 " mastication, digestion, and assimilation," may do something 

 effectual towards warding off or postponing the fulfilment of 



