104 
English and American Physique. [February, 
VI. ENGLISH AND AMERICAN PHYSIQUE* 
By George M. Beard, M.D. 
II. 
Civilisation, Climate , and Teeth. 
HE American dentists are the best in the world ; not 
necessarily because the Americans have greater me- 
chanical skill than Europeans, but because the early 
and rapid decay of teeth in Americans of the better class 
have compelled them to give special attention to dentistry. 
This quick decay of teeth in America, like various forms 
of nervous diseases that go with this decay, is the result not 
of climate alone, but of climate combined with civilisation : 
the confluence of these two streams is necessary. Irregu- 
larities of teeth, like their decay, are the product primarily 
of civilisation, secondarily of climate : they are rarely found 
among the Indians or the Chinese, and, according to Dr. 
Kingsley, are rare even in idiots ; the cretins of Switzerland, 
the same authority states, have “ broad jaws and well- 
"'rnXVfaS’of much instruftiveness is, that decayed 
teeth in Indians and negroes are less likely to annoy and 
irritate than the same amount of decay in sensitive, nervous 
and finely organised whites of any race. Coarse races and 
peoples, and coarse individuals, can go with teeth bad y 
decayed without being aware of such decay from pain, 
whereas in a finely organised constitution the very s lightest 
decay in the teeth excites pain which renders or 
extracting imperative. The coarse races and coarse inch- 
viduals are less disturbed by the bites of mosquitoes, by the 
presence of flies or of dirt on the body, than those in whom 
the nervous diathesis prevails. . . . 
Nervous force travels more slowly, the reflex irritation is 
less perceptible by far, in the dark races and those who live 
out-doors than in those who live m-doors and are of a 
nervous frame. In the strong and coarsely built local irri- 
tation remains local, and does not reverberate through the 
body • while, on the other hand, in the feeble, the. sensitive, 
and the highly and finely organised, any local excitement is 
* The first part o? this article appeared in the January number of the 
“ Journal of Science.” 
