How  to  Preserve  Good  Dental  Organs,  etc.  341 
HOW  TO  SECURE  GOOD  DENTAL  ORGANS  AND  PRE- 
SERVE THEM  EROM  DECAY,  PREVENT  RICKETS, 
HIP  DISEASE,  Etc. 
By  H.  E.  Dennett,  D.  D.  S.,  Boston. 
It  is  conceded  that  dental  decay  is  the  dissolving  away  of  lime  salts  by 
vitiated  secretions.  This  is  not  due  so  much  to  a  want  of  cleanliness  of  the 
mouth  as  is  generally  supposed.  It  is  not  true  that  "A  clean  tooth  never 
decays."  One  may  devote  twelve  hours  out  of  the  twenty-four  to  the  ablu- 
tion of  the  mouth  and  fail  to  prevent  decay  of  the  teeth,  so  long  as  Nature's 
dietic  laws  are  violated.  Acid  will  dissolve  lime  whenever  the  two  meet. 
Acid  saliva  may  be  expected  to  follow  an  excessive  use  of  acids,  or  of  those 
elements  which  are  capable  of  being  converted  into  acids,  or  from  a  defi- 
ciency of  the  opposite  elements. 
Perfect  health  includes  a  perfect  set  of  teeth.  The  teeth  are  little  indi- 
cators that  denote  by  their  condition  that  of  the  whole  system,  just  as  a 
thermometer  indicates  thermal  changes. 
Stripped  of  all  mystery  the  rule  for  health  so  far  as  food  is  concerned  is 
simplicity  itself.  Nature  has  given  to -every  one  an  appetite  which,  in 
its  normal  condition  may  be  relied  upon  to  make  a  proper  choice  of  foods. 
Select  then,  the  food  for  which  the  appetite  calls  containing  all  its  natural 
elements  and  Nature  will  take  care  of  the  results.  Dental  development  in 
man  is  discernable  as  early  as  the  seventh  week  of  intra-uterine  life,  hence 
the  importance  of  a  strictly  correct  diet  from  the  first,  if  mothers  desire  to 
give  birth  to  children  who  may  have  perfectly  formed.  The  lime  from  her 
teeth  will  be  dissolved,  taken  into  the  circulation  and  appropriated  by  the 
offspring.  As  a  consequence,  the  mother  who  passes  through  the  periods 
of  gestation  and  lactation  without  a  sufficient  amount  of  bone  and  tooth 
element  in  her  food,  will  suffer  from  loss  of  teeth,  neuralgia,  rheumatism, 
and  other  diseases  which  result  from  an  impoverished  state  of  a  system 
drained  to  its  utmost.  Excepting  civilized  man  all  flesh-eating  animals 
take  as  much  of  the  bone  with  the  flesh  they  consume  as  they  can  break 
with  their  teeth  sufficiently  fine  to  swallow,  and  all  have  good  dental 
organs.  Take  from  any  carnivorous  animals  their  supply  of  bone  which 
Nature  furnishes  with  the  flesh  and  dental  decay  will  be  the  inevitable 
result.  Several  years  ago  the  lions  in  the  Zoological  Gardens  of  London 
were  fed  upon  the  thighs  of  horses  which  were  too  large  for  them  to  break 
and  eat.  As  a  consequence  their  young  were  born  with  cleft  palates  and 
died.  Subsequently  they  were  fed  upon  deer  and  other  small-boned  ani- 
mals, and  their  young  were  born  with  perfectly  formed  palates  and  lived. 
Veterinary  surgeons  haVe  long  known  that  certain  diseases  of  their  dumb 
patients  can  only  be  successfully  treated  by  feeding  them  with  bone  meal. 
A  dam  too  aristocratic  to  gnaw  bones  gave  birth  to  successive  litters  of 
rickety  pups  ;  but  after  eating  food  which  contained  a  liberal  supply  of  bone 
meal,  she  produced  perfectly  healthy  ones,  and  by  the  same  sire.  Argu- 
ments in  favor  of  eating  bone  to  prevent  the  decay  of  the  teeth  as  well  as 
