A REVOLUTION IN DENTISTRY 51 



before they could be swallowed, our children now are fed on " pre- 

 viously cooked " breakfast foods, infant foods and other starchy viands, 

 which may differ in name and flavor; but agree in two characteristics, 

 viz., that they pander to lazy housekeeping, by requiring very little 

 preparation for the table, and, secondly, require little or no mastication, 

 before swallowing. "Wetted with milk or cream they " slip down " very 

 easily, and are landed in a stomach not prepared for a deluge of 

 unchewed and non-insalivated starchy food. Hence the common cry 

 of " starch indigestion." This is not wonderful because the proper 

 digestion of starchy food must begin in the mouth, and is impossible 

 without complete mastication. We are told in Science that in feeding 

 meal to calves, " it must be spread thinly upon the bottom of the 

 troughs so that it will be eaten slowly and insalivated." This is only 

 one instance out of many where man's commercial instinct has taught 

 him an invaluable truth in regard to the rearing of stock, that has a 

 market value, but which it never seems to have occurred to him is just 

 as important in connection with the rearing of his own children. 



So far as the improper development or non-development of our 

 teeth, jaws, tongues and lips is concerned, the trouble begins with the 

 nursing bottle from which the infant gets its nourishment too easily 

 and too rapidly, so that these important structures are all more or less 

 undeveloped, and this non-development is a continuous performance 

 up to adult life. Of course removal of adenoids, regulation of the 

 teeth, boring out the nasal cavities and so on, are resorted to with great 

 benefit, to obviate defects that should have been prevented by mothers 

 nursing their babies and then making the children chew their food as 

 nature intended them to do. If a child will not chew its food, the 

 despised habit of chewing gum, now known to have prevailed among 

 the Indians, should be encouraged. 



Dr. Eobinson, an English writer, calls attention to the development 

 of the jaws of English boys who were taken out of the streets of London 

 and sent into the British navy. He says "undoubtedly the most 

 noticeable improvement in them, next to their superior stature and 

 healthy appearance, was the total change in the shape and expression 

 of their faces. On analyzing this, one found that it was to be mainly 

 accounted for by the increased growth and improved angle of the lower 

 jaw." This change was due to the rations of " hard tack " and " salt 

 junk " upon which these lads had subsisted. A very satisfactory diet 

 from an orthodontological point of view at least. It is plain enough 

 that ninety per cent, of dental work might have been avoided; just as 

 ninety per cent, of the sickness and premature death in the world is 

 needless and could be prevented. The dentists have made the aston- 

 ishing discovery that they can alter and enlarge the jaws of any child 

 by simple means and they have found out, moreover, that the teeth 



