Am.  Jour.  Pharrn. 
April,  1898. 
Hygiene  of  the  Teeth. 
191 
as  representative  of  the  original  material ;  still,  mention  will  be  made 
of  the  proximate  principles  found.  The  water  solution  contained 
mucilaginous,  but  not  albuminous  matter  precipitable  by  alcohol. 
Alkaline  water  also  extracted  mucilaginous  matter. 
Acidulated  water  dissolved  pararabin  substances  and.  phosphates. 
A  special  examination  for  tannin  was  made  of  some  of  the  mix- 
ture of  rhizome  and  rootlets  by  treating  a  portion  with  water,  but 
the  reactions  were  not  sufficiently  characteristic  to  indicate  more 
than  very  slight  traces  of  tannin,  phlobaphene  or  allied  substances. 
Starch  was  shown  to  be  present  by  both  chemical  and  micro- 
chemical  examinations. 
The  drug  was  found  to  contain  6  92  per  cent,  of  moisture. 
The  ash  amounted  to  24-70  percent.  It  was  of  a  reddish-brown 
color,  but  a  small  quantity  of  it  was  soluble  in  water.  A  qualitative 
analysis  of  the  ash  revealed  the  presence  of  aluminum,  iron,  magne- 
sium, manganese  and  potassium  as  chlorides,  phosphates  and  sul- 
phates. 
V 
HYGIENE  OF  THE  TEETH. 
By  (XemsnT  B.  IyOWE,  M.D. 
It  is  related  of  Don  Quixote  de  la  Mancha,  that  after  one  of  his 
battles,  in  which,  as  usual,  he  was  defeated,  he  found  himself  lying 
upon  the  ground  rubbing  his  bruises  and  bemoaning  the  loss  of  one 
of  his  molars,  which  had  been  knocked  out  by  a  large  stone.  He 
sagely  remarked,  after  reflecting  for  a  while  on  the  matter,  that  to 
lose  a  molar  was  like  losing  an  old  friend.  As  we  do  not  value  our 
friends  at  their  full  worth  until  after  we  have  lost  them,  so  it  is 
with  our  teeth  ;  and  yet  there  has  been  a  great  improvement  in  the 
amount  of  care  bestowed  upon  the  teeth  by  the  present  generation. 
It  is  stated  that  there  has  been  a  marked  increase  in  the  longevity 
of  the  human  race  during^  the  present  century,  the  addition  to  the 
term  of  life  being  stated  at  from  ten  to  fifteen  years.  Various  causes 
have  been  assigned  for  this  increase,  such  as  better  dwellings,  better 
food,  increased  attention  to  sanitation,  shorter  hours  of  labor  and 
labor-saving  machinery,  a  better  knowledge  of  disease  and  the 
remedies  for  combatting  it,  all  of  which  are  probably  entitled  to 
share  in  the  credit  of  the  results  achieved ;  yet,  Lauder  Brunton 
thinks  that  the  "  credit  is  really  due  to  the  dentists  who  supply 
