Chapter IV: Appendix: Notes (2)

“Thus, in the _carnivora_, the cuspidati are greatly elongated and strengthened, in order to enable them to seize their food and to tear it in pieces; in the _rodentia_, or gnawing animals, as in the beaver, for instance, the incisors are remarkably long, and exhibit that extraordinary development which their peculiar habits demand, and in the graminivorous animals, the _ruminantia_ especially, the molares are found to occupy the most conspicuous situation. But, in each of these instances, the other kinds of teeth are found to be proportionably of less importance, and in some cases, are actually wanting. In man, on the contrary, every class appears to be equally developed, to a moderate, though a sufficient degree, and to exhibit a perfection of structure which may be considered as being the true type, from which all other forms are mere deviations. It becomes, therefore, a question of some interest, and perhaps of no less difficulty, to what food the structure which has just been demonstrated is particularly adapted. The opinion which I venture to give has not been hastily formed, nor without what appeared to me sufficient grounds; I advance it, however, with diffidence, and do not profess to consider it much more than hypothetical.

“The endowment of reason, that greatest, best gift of the Creator, appears, if we consider the perfection of human organization, to be particularly, and, in its highest degree, even exclusively, adapted to the conformation and requirements of man. This high and divine endowment should never be lost sight of in our reasonings on the human structure, and the physiology and habits of our species, as it is only with the allowances and modifications which the possession of a quality so infinitely higher than the instinct of other animals necessarily supposes, that the actual habits of man can be viewed as compatible with his organization. Although these habits, now essentially arising from, and combined with a state of civilization, which, in a greater or less degree, must be allowed to exist in every known tribe of our species, cannot be considered, in any one instance, as actual and exclusively _natural_; yet we may be led, by a careful examination of the structure of the different organs, and by an analogical comparison of them, as they exist in man, with the same organs in those animals which most nearly resemble him in structure, but which are still found in a perfectly natural state, to a plausible supposition, at least, of what were originally his natural habits; and which would have still continued so, but for those changes which have arisen from the possession of this very endowment.

“With this view of the subject, it is not, I think, going too far to say, that every fact connected with the human organization goes to prove, that man was originally formed a frugivorous animal, and therefore probably tropical, or nearly so, with regard to his geographical situation. This opinion is principally derived from the formation of his teeth and digestive organs, as well as from the character of his skin, and the general structure of his limbs. It is not my intention now to go farther into the discussion of this subject than to observe, that if analogy be allowed to have any weight in the argument, it is wholly on that side of the question which I have just taken.--Those animals whose teeth and digestive apparatus most nearly resemble our own, namely, the apes and monkeys, are undoubtedly frugivorous; but as, from their organization, they are necessarily tropical animals, and without the gift of reason, by which they might have overcome the difference of temperature by artificial means, they remain still restricted to their original food, and confined to the very limited climate to which their structure peculiarly adapted them. The reasoning powers of man, on the contrary, have enabled him to set climate at defiance, and have rendered him, in all cases, more or less an artificial being. No longer restrained within that range of temperature to which the delicacy of his frame, no less than the nature of his original nutriment would have confined him, he becomes the denizen of every climate, and the lord of terrestrial creation.” (_Bell on the Teeth_, pp. 33--36.)

(23) _Of bloody banquet for the monster--man!_

“Temperance, cleanliness, and abstinence, have greater power over the soul and body than most in our days imagine. Some of the ancients have delivered it as a maxim, ‘That none could understand God and his works, and enjoy perfect health and long life, but those that abstain from flesh, wine, and vices, bounding their desires according to the ends and necessities of nature.’ Most men will in words confess, that there is no blessing this world affords comparable to health, yet rarely do any of them value it as they ought to do, till they feel the want of it. To him that has obtained this goodly gift, the meanest food, even bread and water, are most pleasant, and all sorts of labor and exercise delightful. But the contrary makes all things nauseous and distasteful. What are full-spread tables, riches, and honors, to him that is tormented with distempers? Happy it were, if men did but use the tenth part of the care and diligence to perserve their minds and bodies in health, as they do to procure riches, which serve them chiefly to procure those dainties and superfluities which generate disease, and are the causes of many other evils, there being but few men that know how to use riches as they ought. As little and as mean food and drink, will maintain a lord in perfect health as the poorest peasant. But, alas! the momentary pleasures of the appetite entice most people to exceed the bounds of necessity or convenience, and many are seduced by a false opinion of nature, childishly imagining that the richer the food, and the more they consume, the more they shall be strengthened thereby. But experience proves the reverse; for the persons who accustom themselves to the richest compound food, and most cordial drinks, are uniformly the most infirm and diseased. People much mistake in supposing, that, so long as the appetite desires and the pleasure of eating continues strong, they may eat on without damage to their health. The truth is, this is one of the chief reasons why men are gluttons; and there is little difficulty in temperance, save only in this particular; it being somewhat hard for a healthy man to give off eating in the midst of the pleasure he receives by it, especially when meats by art are made on purpose, not only to prolong the appetite, but also to delight it. Varieties of food are always dangerous, if great care and temperance be not observed. He that limits his desire by wisdom, and has the understanding both of the quality and the quantity, may eat of sundry sorts of food at once; but the ignorant and unwise very rarely do it without prejudice to their health.” (_Tryon’s Way to Health, Long Life, and Happiness, London_, 1691, pp. 41, 42, 43.)

The same very ingenious writer remarks, page 137, “If you will be so habituated and wedded to your unhealthy customs, that you, ask not whether nature be weak and impotent, then you may mix your food with all the varieties that the East and West Indies produce; you may make your drink as strong and cordial as you wish; you may wrap yourselves at night in beds of down; and when it is nine or ten o’clock in the morning, look that you have a good, rousing fire in your chambers, and breakfast ready; and two or three hours afterwards, let a plentiful dinner of varieties be made ready, with strong and inflaming liquors. This is the trade that many thousands of this nation pursue, as if they studied to bring diseases upon themselves, and dig their graves with their own teeth; for, in the midst of all their affluence, wherein they esteem themselves happy, they are yet most miserable.”

(24) _The safe and luscious diet of mankind._

Of all the forms of vegetable matter proper to this climate, the farinaceous grains are undoubtedly the most important; but in making them into bread, the following rules from Tryon should be well observed;--and his advice will be found to have lost none of its value by coming from a writer in the reign of William and Mary.

“If you set any value on health, and have a mind to preserve nature, you must not separate the finest from the coarsest flour, because that which is fine is naturally of an obstructive quality; but, on the contrary, the other, which is coarse, is of a cleansing and opening nature; therefore, that bread is best which is made of both together. In the inward bean and skin of the wheat is contained an oily quality, of a sweet nature, by reason whereof, bread made of fine and coarse together will not only be sweeter, and keep longer moist, but is also more wholesome; easier of concoction. It must be confessed, that the nutritive quality is contained in the fine flour, yet, in the branny part is contained the opening and digestive quality and there is as great a necessity for the one as for the other, for the support of health. By what has been said, we may gather that the eating of fine bread is inimical to health, and contrary both to nature and reason; and was at first invented to gratify luxurious persons, who are ignorant both of themselves and of the true virtue and efficacy of natural things.” (_Tryon’s Way to Health_, pp. 147, 148.)

The same author, pp. 286, 287, relates the following anecdote of Henry VIII. “There is a pleasant story of king Henry VIII., in the first part of his reign, riding a hunting; and being hungry, he strayed from his attendants, and came alone to a monastery about dinner time. The fat, lazy abbot, welcomed him very kindly, for hearing that the king was in that country, he concluded this was one of his guards. At dinner they had great varieties, and the king fed like a farmer on a piece of roast beef. But the abbot, who daily crammed himself with delicacies, could scarce relish a bit of any thing before him; and pleasantly said to the king:--‘Honest friend, I would give five hundred pounds if I could pick so heartily as you do on a piece of roast beef.’ The king returned him some small compliment, and after dinner took his leave. About a fortnight after, the king sent a messenger for the old fulsome abbot, and ordered him to be carried to the tower, there to be close prisoner, and allowed a given quantity of small beer and bread every day, but no other food. The abbot could not imagine what he had done to occasion such an imprisonment; and being thus dieted, he soon came to have a good stomach. After about a month, the king ordered the keeper to carry him in a good piece of hot roast beef, on which the abbot fell with such violence as if he would have eaten it at a mouthful. The king, who was stationed in a room where he could see how he laid about, at last stepped in and demanded his five hundred pounds. ‘For,’ said he, ‘you said you would give it; and I have performed the cure, and got you a better stomach than all the doctors in England would have done:’--and so upon payment of the five hundred pounds, discharged him.”

“No flocks that range the valley free,
To slaughter I condemn,
Taught by the Power that pities me,
I learn to pity them.

“But from the mountain’s grassy side,
A guiltless feast I bring;
A scrip with herbs and fruits supplied,
And water from the spring.”

_Goldsmith’s Hermit._

“To mix the food by vicious rules of art,
To kill the stomach, and to sink the heart,
To make mankind in social virtue sour,
Cram o’er each dish, and be what they devour;
For this the kitchen muse first framed her book,
Commanding sweat to stream form every cook:
Children no more their antic gambols tried,
And friends to physic wondered why they died.”

_Barlow’s Hasty Pudding_, CANTO II.

“In China, a single acre of land sown with rice, produces sufficient for the consumption of five persons for a year, allowing two pounds and a half a day to each.” (_Breton’s China_, Vol. IX. p. 29.)

“The peculiar property of the corn plant, is that of being produced, in some shape or other, in every part of the world, from the rice of the Ganges to the barley of Finland. It is, however remarkable, that it no where grows spontaneously, like other plants, so that providence appears to have devolved altogether on our species the charge of maintaining and extending its cultivation. Bread is, of all vegetable nourishment, the most substantial and durable.” (_St. Pierre’s Studies of Nature_, Vol. I. p. 22.)

“The living herbs spring up prefusely wild,
O’er all the deep green earth, beyond the power
Of botanist to number up their tribes:
But who their virtues can declare? who pierce
With vision pure, into the secret stores
Of health, and life, and joy! The food of man,
While yet he lived in innocence, and told
A length of golden years unfleshed in blood,
A stranger to the savage arts of life,
Death, rapine, carnage, surfeit, and disease,
The lord, and not the tyrant of the world.”

THOMSON.

“Milk is in part vegetable food; and as such is used by all pastoral nations, and serves in a measure as a substitute for it.” (_Dr. Lambe’s Reports on Regimen_, p. 167.)

“To prevent indigestion, milk ought not to be eat together with flesh.” (_Dr. Willet._)

“Eggs contain a larger proportion of pure nourishment than any other food. They are a most valuable article, not only when consumed by themselves, but when mixed with other things. Raw, poached, soft boiled, or in any ways lightly cooked, they are gently laxative, and sit easy on most stomachs.” (_Sir John Sinclair’s Code of Health_, Vol. I. p. 414.)

“An entire diet of vegetable matter gives to the disposition a gentleness, softness, and mildness of feeling, directly the reverse of that ferocity of mind and fierceness of character which form the leading feature of all carnivorous animals, it has also a particular influence on the powers of the mind, producing liveliness of imagination and acuteness of judgment in an eminent degree. (_Sir John Sinclair’s Code of Health_, Vol. I. p. 423.)

(25) _Nor meet one star that gilds the glowing pole!_

“Mœnenius Agrippa dispelled the prejudice of the Roman people, by a fabulous allusion to the absurdity and blindness of all the members of the human body joining in rebellion against the stomach:--and if fable or fact could be adduced with such successful persuasion to dispel the blindness of modern luxury, the stomach would not so perpetually be excited as it is, to the contrary office of waging war against all the members of the body.” (_Thomas Hare on the Stomach_, &c., _London_, 1821, p. 300.)

“The man who perceives in his own soul the supreme soul present in all creatures, acquires kindness towards all, and shall be absorbed at last in the highest essence, even in that of the Almighty himself.” (_Laws of Menu._)

(26) _Where health and purity should ever reign._

Tartar is an accumulation of acrimonious earthy matter, round the necks of the teeth. This accretion arises from the fluid secretions of the mouth, and consequently, few persons are entirely free from it, though some, from the state of their general health, may be more subject to it than others. The teeth to which it is generally attached, are those that are the least acted upon in the process of mastication; and the molares of the upper, as well as the incisors of the under jaw, being situated nearer to the salivary ducts, more readily become affected. Whenever tartar is permitted to accumulate around the teeth, the gums, the membrane lining the alveoli, and even the aveolar process itself, are liable to suffer through the powers of absorption being increased by inflammatory action. It thus not unfrequently happens, that persons through want of proper care and attention to the removal of tartar, have lost the whole of their teeth.

“The formation of a calculous deposit upon the teeth, in a greater or less degree, may almost be said to be universal; for, although in many persons of sound health and temperate habits, it is possible, by care, to remove it so immediately after its deposition, that the teeth are kept generally free from it, still, I believe it is in all cases produced, and would accumulate, but for constant attention to the proper means for its removal. It consists of calcareous substance, which, when first deposited, is soft, friable, and readily crumbling under the finger; but gradually, and, as it were, by a slow kind of crystallization, acquires almost a rocky hardness. Its usual color is a dull, whitish yellow, or buff; though in some cases it is dark brown, or black, and in others has a greenish hue. It also varies in the character of its surface, being generally smooth, especially in those parts where the tongue acts constantly upon it; but occasionally, in other parts, exceedingly rough and rugged. It is susceptible of being stained by any coloring matter frequently taken into the mouth during its deposition; as, for instance, from smoking tobacco, or from the long continued use of colored gargles, especially such as are composed of articles which are not capable of perfect solution in aqueous menstrua.

“With the exception of gangrene, there is no kind of injury to which the teeth are exposed, so commonly and so extensively destructive as this concretion.” (_Bell on Human Teeth_, p. 192.)

(27) _As death disparts the body from the soul._

“It will be objected, perhaps, to what we have said, that many people who have beautiful teeth, and a healthy mouth, pay no attention to these parts; whilst those who attach a great value to them, and take the greatest care of them, have much trouble in preserving them. But it will also be an easy matter to reply to these objections, by making a comparison between children born of parents of sound constitution, and reared in the country, and those born in cities, whom an ill conducted education has predisposed to a debility of organization often to be recognised by the state of their teeth alone.--It ought, therefore, perhaps to be remarked, that diseased teeth with many individuals, originate in an organic disposition, which may be transmitted from fathers to their children.” (_Gerbaux on the Teeth, Edinburgh Edition_, p. 23.)

(28) _The brush, the dentrifice, and, from the spring._

“It is a religious precept,” says Tournefort in his voyage to the Levant, “among the Mussulmen, to make the little ablution with the face turned toward Mecca; to rinse the mouth thrice, and clean their teeth with a brush.” This shows how highly this custom is esteemed among a people, who formerly were forbidden, according to Menavius, to have a tooth extracted without permission from the emperor. Let children be taught by their parents the proper degree of care necessary for their teeth; they generally imitate them even in their sports:--here the agreeable lesson will be converted into a useful habit. (_Duval_, p. 75.)

(29) _And blooming health will soon reward it all._

“As soon as the first teeth of a child are completed, they should be brushed twice, or, at least, once a day, with a soft brush and water. When children are thus early familiarized to the healthy and necessary custom of brushing the teeth, it becomes a fixed habit, and they find it ever afterward absolutely essential to their comfort. In winter, or in cold weather, the water used in brushing the teeth should be tepid. It is quite unnecessary to use any kind of powder to the first teeth of children.” (_Murphy on the Teeth, London_, 1811, p. 118.)

(30) _Restore her hopes, and make her lovely still._

Tartar is more safely removed by instruments than by such chemical solvents as have been too commonly employed; for, although the injury they occasion is not at first perceptible, they ultimately disorder the substance and texture of the teeth. This is not the case when the operation is properly performed by means of instruments; and is attended with neither pain to the person, nor danger to the enamel.

The manual operation of cleaning the teeth with instruments, is not performed with equal skill and delicacy by all who practise it.--There are, of course, as many different degrees of merit in dentists, as there are in the practitioners of any other art or science.

(31) _The offspring of an epicurean age._

“But just disease to luxury succeeds,
And every death its own avenger breeds;
The fury passions first from blood began,
And turned on man a fiercer savage--man.”

_Pope’s Essay on Man_, Epistle III.

(32) _And bears them all successively away._

Caries is the most frequent disease of the teeth. The general seat of it is, on the sides of the front teeth and in the centre and sides of the back ones. Its progress through all its different stages is easily marked. First of all, a small dark spot appears on the enamel, through which the disease quickly passes into the internal structure of the bone. When this has taken place, the least pressure from chewing any hard substance is liable to break away portions of the enamel, and thus the internal part becomes subject to every injury which can arise from extraneous matter lodging therein. The molares are more subject to this disease than the front teeth; first, because their indented surfaces more readily retain any extraneous matter; and secondly, because they are less in view, and consequently less attended to.

In the enamel of the most apparently perfect teeth, small cracks may, with a magnifying power, easily be discovered. These, although unnoticed by the individual, are sufficient to admit disordered fluids, and to account for many forms of decay. This may likewise account for decay taking place in the broad surfaces of the molares, where the points of contraction always produce a depression, and thus afford a convenient lodgment for acrid saliva and other decomposing agents.

From my own observations I am induced to believe, that caries is universally caused by the action of external agents; and therefore cleanliness, and a due regard to the general health, after the proper offices of the dentist are performed, is the only guard against it. But some teeth, from their being of less dense structure, are less capable of resisting the action of decomposing matter, and consequently will require greater attention to ward off disease.

Mr. Brewster, of Charleston, whose experience, from having been fifteen years in extensive practice, has given him ample opportunities of judging, has, in a manuscript with which he politely furnished me, enumerated the following as the principal causes of decay. Constitutional softness of the teeth; The use of medicines during dentition or in after life; The too free use of acids, which, uniting with the lime in the enamel, destroys its strength; A too slow growth of the teeth between the time of protruding their points through the gum, and the full development of their crowns. It will often happen that the projecting points of the grinding teeth pass through the gum, and there for a long time remain with a portion of the surface, comprehending the indentations of the grinding surface, partially covered with the gum. As there is no union between the enamel and the gum, fine and soft particles of food insinuate themselves between the gum and the tooth. This matter decays, and the acid generated thereby acts perniciously on the enamel, and lays the foundation for subsequent decay of the tooth. The remedy is simple, and, in most cases, effectual. It consists in removing the gum from the top of the tooth, which is performed by a skilful operation, with little or no pain to the patient. This prolific source of decay I am not aware has ever been noticed by any writer on the teeth. Another prolific source of decay is the permitting a new tooth to come in contact with the decaying part of an old one. The remedy consists in removing a portion or the whole of the old tooth.

The too free use of mercury; The accumulation of tartar; Neglect of cleanliness by suffering the particles of food to remain between the teeth after meals; Irregular living, or any other cause which occasions a disordered stomach; Extremes of heat and cold; All Acids, whether in fruits, powders, or lotions; Metalic toothpicks; Injudicious dental operations; Most of the nostrums administered for tooth ache.

“I propose,” says Mr. Bell, “to substitute for the word caries, the term gangrene of the teeth, which expresses the real nature of the disease. It may be defined--mortification of any part of a tooth, producing gradual decomposition of its substance. It usually attacks the crown of the tooth; sometimes, though rarely, the neck; but I believe it scarcely ever makes its first appearance on the root. It invariably shows itself on the external surface of the bone, immediately underneath the enamel, and its existence is, in many cases, first indicated by an opaque spot on that substance, occasioned by partial breaking down of its crystalline structure; in others, its presence is shown by the discolored bone being seen through the semi-transparency of the enamel.” (_Bell on the Human Teeth_, p. 118.)

I have made the foregoing quotation from the work of Mr. Thomas Bell, with whom I once conversed personally on the doctrine contained therein, for the purpose of expressing my entire dissent from the opinion held by most of the writers on this subject, in relation both to the local origin, and the immediate cause of caries, or dental gangrene. Some of these writers divide the disease into two kinds, which they distinguish by the names external and internal caries; while others inculcate the doctrine so hostile to all my experience and observation, that caries commences, as Mr. Bell says in the passage quoted, on the surface of the bone, under the enamel, and that the disease becomes visible through the semi-transparency of the enamel, which itself is destroyed by being broken away by mechanical violence. Now I must aver, that after a constant and extensively diversified practice of nineteen years, both in Europe and America, I have never known a solitary instance of this disorder which was not evidently occasioned from external causes on the surface of the tooth, penetrating first through the enamel, if on the body of the tooth, and then assailing the bony structure.

There are teeth that are faulty, both in their enamel and organization; owing, probably, to constitutional or hereditary peculiarities which have not, as I am aware, ever been satisfactorily explained by any author.

As to the cause of caries, I published my opinion many years ago, first in London, and afterwards in this city, and have seen no cause to espouse a contrary opinion. I consider the immediate and exciting cause of dental decay to be always external to the tooth itself, and to consist of certain corrosive menstrua, to which these organs are exposed from bodily disease, improper aliments, powerful medicines and the thousand other sources of acrid filth and destructive poisons that become concentrated in the mouth and deposited upon the teeth. These procuring causes of caries may indeed derive their origin from constitutional diseases acting upon the system at various periods of life, but whatever internal defect of structure a tooth may derive from original organization, how much soever it may be predisposed to take a diseased action under favorable conditions, still, the tooth never decays till externally affected by putrescent, or corrosive, or disorganizing matter, which breaks up its structure.

That such has been my uniform opinion, will be seen from the following extract from the work on the stomach and digestive organs, published by Dr. Thomas Hare, Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in London, in 1821.

“The theories concerning the cause of decay in the teeth which seem to have met most attention, are those referring it to an undue degree of compression exerted by the irlateral surfaces on each other, and to a putrefactive fermentation of extraneous matter lodging in the interstices. The former has been ably set forth by Mr. Bell, of St. Thomas’s Hospital, in the Medico-chirurgical Transactions; the latter was published about two years ago, by Mr. Parmly.” (page 269.)

(33) _A dream forgot, a tale of other years._

Dr. Fitch alleges the following three modes in which disordered teeth contribute to the production of that distressing disease--the dyspepsy, or indigestion.

“First, by preventing a proper mastication of the food.

“Secondly, by the ulcerated and putrid matter which passes from the teeth and gums, along with the aliment, to the stomach.

“Thirdly, the irritation produced by diseased teeth, being often so great as to disturb the healthy functions of the system, and of the stomach in particular.” (_Fitch on the Teeth_, p. 308.)

(34) _Most justly damned to everlasting fame!_

“The pain commonly termed the tooth-ache is one of the most excruciating to which we are liable. It is caused by an inflammation of the membrane lining the cavity. In inflammation, one of the consequences is a swelling of the part, which is generally followed by a diminution of the pain, the degree of which seems to be regulated by the resistance and compression which the inflamed vessels suffer from the surrounding parts. The membrane of the tooth being situated within a cavity which is incapable of extension, there must necessarily exist an insurmountable obstacle to the swelling of the membrane; and this it is which renders the pain so extremely acute. In some few instances, caries will proceed without being accompanied by any sensations; the tooth gradually breaks away, until the whole of it is removed.” (_Fox_,