w U 100 K28v>l 1885 Human* Teeth, AND Hoi to Preserve Them. '-. BY MELVILLE C. KEITH, M. D. felt WU 100 K28w 1885 NLM D52b3775 2 NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE AL LIBRARY FOUNDED 1836 WASHINGTON, D.C NLM052637752 DUE TWO WEEKS FROM LAST DATE IFtB * IPX GPO 322808 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT Human Teeth. AND HOW TO PRESERVE THEM. BY MELVILLE C KEITH, M. D. Honorary Member of the Indiana State Physio-Medical Association. Member of the American Association of Physio-Medical Physicians and Surgeons. BOSTON: Press of Robinson & Stephenson, 91 Oliver Street, 100 K« "Many shall run to and fro and knowledge shall be increased.—Daniel, xii: 4. " To the poor the gospel is preached." Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year l.sa.j, By Melville C. Keith, M. D., In the oflicc of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. PREFACE. The question to be decided about this book, is this. Is it true or false? The writer believes it to be true. A portion of it he knows to be absolute truth from experience in himself, his children, his pa- tients and acquaintances. . The facts are set down as they occurred. They are conclusive in the mind of the writer, and he publishes these facts in obedience to a conviction that the publication will be a bene- fit to others. On the other hand, a class of citizens who believe as those who cried "Great is Diana of the Ephesians," and that their special craft is in danger from a new fangled belief of the masses, will decry the author, and inveigh against its teachings. These people must not be blamed lightly. Accustomed to lying PREFACE. daily to their patients for a number of years, they simply love a lie and hate the truth. Accustomed to tell each deluded victim that a MERCURIAL AMALGAM filling IS a SILVER fill- ing, they are mad that the common people should have their eyes open. Some of this class—dentists, as they call themselves—are members of churches, and really hope to enter heaven. They are in some instances pillars of their society, and with the gravity of an owl and the mendacity of the Gibeonites they will deny a fact, and artfully relate some other quibble on some author's theory, and thus render the book of no value to the simply trustful soul, who is led astray by the appar- ent authority of these artful dodgers in high places. But the honest man, woman or child, seek- ing after truth and health and strength and long life with good teeth, will find herein the germs of thought that will help him onwards in his search and do him good to the roots of his teeth. Finally this book does not contain all the knowledge of teeth. The student who wishes to know more about the subject is advised to look up the text books, and with a good share of patience at the conflicting ideas and theo- ries go directly to headquarters, nature. PREFACE. Lastly, the writer believes there is a Great First Cause, and those trying to live nearer to His Laws will be greatly helped by even the most trivial (apparently trivial to us short- sighted mortals, but in reality who can tell what is trivial or otherwise) helps. Believing this the writer offers the little book as a help to others, who are uncertain what to believe in regard to the teeth. Many circumstances are set down which have occurred under the writer's observation, which form a portion of what he knows about the human teeth. It may seem somewhat self conceited to be personally authoritative in a new line, but the writer has been near by the valley of death from amalgam filled teeth, and if strong language is used it certainly is only used to awaken those who are listless and apathetic concerning the important factors of life—the Teeth. Minneapolis, Minn., July, 1885. CONTENTS. PAGE. ta(;e. Adam Smith, 33 Bromid Potass, . '27 An Alkali, . 108 Counting Molars, 11 Attorney's Ears, 0-2 Cause of Decay, 12 Advice About Plates, 95 Cementum, . 15 Are You a Victim ? . 97 Children's Teeth, 107 A Crank, 100 Catnip Tea, . . 113 American Cyclopedia, 103 Corn Meal Gruel, . 116 A Texas Daisy, . 79 Children's Food, 112-117 Author on Doctors, . 87 Celluloid, . 92 A Tooth Poultice, 67 Celluloid, Compositio n of, 93 Amalgam Assertions, 00 44 Celluloid, Richardson on,. 91 Afraid of Doctor, 45 Cases, . 99 Arresting Decay, 47 Coffee Drinkers, . 102 Allopathy, . 28 Cleanliness, 77 Best Plates, 94 Country Cousin, . 78 Blackened Teeth, 100 Change of Time, 83 Bathing, 76 Chewing Crusts, 75 Best Tooth Food, 86 China Tea, . 67 Bi-sulphuret of Mercury, 88 Cannibals, . 62 Bacteria, 69 Care of Teeth, 65 Beale, Lionel, 49 Calculi, 39 Bolting Food, 74 Chorea, 44 Bone Soup, . 7'2 Calomel, 27 Basis Substance, 7'2 Cause of Rigg's Disea sc, . 34 Brain Injured, 79 Diseases of Teeth, 20 Brain Destroyer, 41 Dentive Tubules, . 14-18 CONTENTS. Dentition, Difficult, . Don't Do It, Dead Tooth, Deranged Stomach, . Deafness Caused, Destructive Agencies, Dentifrice on Enamel, Decay of Molars, Early Teaching, . Enamel, Eruption of Teeth, Enamel Destroyers, . Electricity, . Effete Material, . Eyesight Impaired, Effect of Decay, . Effects of Minerals, . Floss Silk, . First Molar, From Parthenia, Food Considerations, Fillings, Various, Flat Nosed Mail, . Grinders, Gold Plate, . Gum (hewers, . Germs or Parasites, . Hardening Teeth, Hotel Cooking, . Healthy Stomachs, How to Treat a Tooth, Hydrate of Chloral, . Indian Teeth, Injurious Habits, Inherent Reparation,. Indigestion,. Jesuit Maxim, . J. P. Simmons, . PAGE. 112 Keep Clean, 73 Keep Mouth Shut, 50 Lancing Teeth, . 51 Living Tooth, 58 Laboring Man, . 64 Law of Nature, . 37 Loss of Sight, 46 Man of Sin, . 74 Mistaken Views, 15 Mark of Beast, . 9 Names of Teeth, . 67-68 Nursed too Long, 57 Not Known, 76 Nourishment for Teeth, 58 Nuts for Teeth, . 40 Noble Souls, 32 Obedience Rewarded, 71 Offensive Breath, 10 Offensive Mouth, 99 Oat Meal, How Cooked, 26-86 Pious Elder, 56 Provision for Mother, 81 Professional Courtesy, 14 Plates, Different Kinds, 91 Pea Nut, Not a Nut, . 75 Pulp Cavity, . 41-15 Potatoes, 50-136 Quicksilver, 108 Rubber Plate, 51 IMch Family, 40 Remedy for Dyspepsia, 27 Retained Saliva, . 107 Recapitulation, . 96 Rubber Nipples, . 104 Scotch Teeth, 70 Slave Teeth, 63 Section of Incisor, 128 starch Food, CONTENTS. PAGE. Soul, Body and Teeth, . 122 Sympathetic Nerve, . 89 Salivary Glands, 36 Soft Teeth Hardened, 55 Solution of Bone, 73 Sore Nose, . . 106 Swedish Teeth, . . 107 Teeth at Birth, . 9 Teeth, Names of, 13 Teeth Built Up, . 18 Teeth, Material of, . 18-48-51 Teeth, Why Decay, . 21 Teeth, Living, . 103 Teeth, Care of, . 86 Teeth Destroyers, 27 PAGE. Tooth Hardeners, . . 103 Tooth Illustrations, 10-25-52-110 Tartar,.....38 Tumor of Jaw, ... 43 Troubles of Womb, . . 88 Tobacco Smoke, . . .105 Vertical Sections of Teeth, 52-110 Why Not Rubber? . . 88 Why Tartar Increases, . 37 Why Nuts are Indigestible, 51 What a Dentist Can Do, . 136 Who Cares?. ... 95 Young Mothers, . . 136 Your Dentist, ... 58 Young Children's Demands, 111 CHAPTER I. THE TEETH. At birth the pulps or germs of the teeth are found in the jaw. At from six to nine months the first teeth commence to be erupted, or as is commonly expressed "cut". The two lower incisors first come through. Next the upper incisors. Then the incisors either side, the canines and lastly the molars. The temporary teeth are usually cut in the following order : From the third to the tenth month, two central incisors, upper and lower. Between the seventh and twelfth months, two lateral incisors. Between the tenth and sixteenth months, two canines. Between the twelfth and twentieth months, two first molars. . From the twentieth month to the third year, the second molars. r FIRST MOLAR, COMMONLY CALLED THE SIX-YEAR-OLD MOLAR. This tooth should not be pulled out, even if somewhat decayed. It is a permanent tooth and assists in keeping the other teeth in position. THE TEETH. II The temporary teeth are twenty in number, and last until about the sixth year. At that the incisors commence to drop out and the permanent set, or permanent teeth be- gin to make their appearance. Teething is considered a critical period of a child's life. Some children, however, are scarcely sick, and one does not know when the teeth come through ; others are so very sick that a physician is necessary, and the little gums have to be "lanced" or "cut". This is usually done by cutting across them in the form of a cross. I do not believe in much lancing or cutting, although I can conceive of cases where it might be necessary. The food has a great deal to do with the eruption of the temporary teeth. If a child is fed on cow's milk out of a nursing bottle with rubber nipples, the teeth cut much harder and later than if nursed from the breast. It is possible the ingredients composing the so-called rubber have something to do with hardening the gums. At an)' rate it is a fact that chil- dren nursed on a bottle have the hardest time, and are usually the most prostrated. At about the age of six or seven years, another molar comes through. A parent can tell when this third molar comes through by counting. There should be five 12 THE HUMAN TEETH. on a side in the temporary teeth. When the sixth one comes it is one of the perman- ent set and is called the sixth year old molar. At this point very many mistakes are com- mitted by the parents who do not give the child sufficient tooth material, or else who an- tagonize that tooth material by allowing the children to eat of the poisonous and destructive candies which are sold at the confectioners, grocers and drug stores. The mistakes made by dentists and doctors is that of pulling these teeth out the moment they are the least particle decayed. And they decay more readily at this time because, first, the phosphate of lime held in solution in the blood is needed to form other growing bones. Second, because the tooth material is not sufficient in the body ; and, thirdly, because of the prevailing habit of stuffing the children with candies and sugars made from sul- phuric acid and glucose. Another reason why the teeth decay at this particular period is because the child eats too much and sleeps with his mouth open. Breathing through the mouth is an injurious custom for any one. But a child suffers more proportionately than an adult, because the food being usually composed in part or wholly THE TEETH. l3 of milk, sours soonest and this acid assists in destroying the enamel of the teeth. The permanent teeth are thirty-two in num- ber, sixteen in each jaw. The upper jaw is called the superior maxillary, and the lower jaw the inferior maxillary. Each jaw contains six- teen teeth arranged as follows : Four incisors in each jaw. They are called incisors from the latin of incidcrc (to cut.) Two cuspids in each jaw. They are called cuspids from the latin of cusps (a spear), and are usually called canine or dog teeth" The upper canines are commonly called the "eye teeth." The lower canine teeth are called the "stomach teeth." I cannot believe they have any more to do, or that they effect the eyes or the stomach more than the other teeth. Four bicuspids in each jaw. They are called bicuspids from the latin of bis (twice) and cuspis (a spear.) Or literally, two- speared, or double pointed teeth. These are sometimes called the pre-molars or half molars. Twelve molars from the latin of molcre (to grind), six on each jaw. The first of these, counting from the front is the six vear old molar, the second is called the twelve year old molar, and the third is called the wis- 14 THE HUMAN TEETH. dom teeth (or dentes sapientias) because they are not cut until the person is twenty or twenty-five years old. It would indeed be ex- cellent if persons had wisdom with the cut- ting of these third molars. The temporary set does not contain the third molars or wisdom teeth nor the biscuspids. The upper molars have three roots. In the case of the third molars these roots may be all together and apparently form but one root. The upper first and second molars have nearly always three roots each. But the low- er first and second molars have usually but two. These teeth are deeply groved and well deserve the name they have, the grinders. The lower wisdom tooth is nearly always larger than the upper. Neither of the wisdom are difficult to extract. They usually decay early and are pulled out because of the igno- rance of the people in regard to their diet, and also because they do not understand the importance of all the teeth to the general health. Dentine is tooth material or formed material. The Dentine has tubes through which the tooth material passes from the pulp cavity to the enamel. This tooth material is soft at first, but after being deposited it grows hard, because the THE TEETH. r5 moisture is taken from it, and because of the vital power acting upon it. The enamel is from the dentine and grows from it outside of the dentine, from the pulp cavity. The top of the tooth or its grinding surface, is called the crown. The lower part its root or fang, or roots or fangs. Between the crown and fangs is the neck. On the outside of the tooth is a very hard covering. On the part which is outside and above the gum and in sight, the outside hard layer, is called the enamel. Below the gum it is called the cementum or crusta petrosa. The enamel is very smooth and the tooth cementum is roughened, so as to retain a good hold on the gum, or so that the gum can retain a firm grasp on the tooth. On the inside part of the tooth is a hollow space which commences at the extremity of the fang and extends from the apex of the root to the middle of the upper part of the tooth. This space is called the pulp cavity. The pulp cavity is filled with blood vessels and nerves. Running from the pulp cavity to the enamel are little canals which are filled with tooth material received from the blood vessels (and possibly from the nerves also) that come i6 THE HUMAN TEETH. VIEW OF THE PERMANENT TEETH, LEFT SIDE, UPPER AND LOWER. THE TEETH. 17 THE PERMANENT TEETH, LEFT SIDE. 1. Upper and lower Central Incisor. 2. Upper and lower Lateral Incisor. 3. Upper and lower Canine or dog teeth. 4 and 5. First and second Bicuspids or pre- molars. 6. Six-year-old Molar. 7. Twelve-year-old Molar. 8. Wisdom tooth. i8 THE HUMAN TEETH. up through the canals in the roots and are plen- tiful in the pulp cavity. The pulp cavity contains the workshop of the tooth ; where the tooth is repaired, hard- ened, built up and strengthened. From the pulp cavity to the outside or Enamel and to the cementum the tooth is com- posed of dentine. All the tooth material comes through the stomach. Food is digested, assimilated, etc., etc., etc., until it arrives in the heart, from thence to the lungs, returned to the other side of the heart, from there to the aorta, to the carotid artery and thence to the internal maxillary artery and the dental, and thence to the roots or fangs and through the canals in the roots into the pulp cavity, and thence to the dentine tubules and to the enamel. Every portion of the tooth is built up from the contents of the pulp cavity. Every particle of the tooth comes through the stomach. Although the teeth are in constant use, they mav be preserved, built up, hardened and pre- served a hundred years, if the stomach con- tains a sufficient amount of tooth material, that after undergoing the various processes can be sent to the pulp cavity as tooth material. THE TEETH. r9 But it is evident, that if there is no tooth material, or material which can be changed into tooth structure, already in the blood, the pulp cavity must be deficient in that tooth material, and as a result the tooth while living must suffer and decay. TM CHAPTER II. THE DISEASES OF THE TEETH. The various forms of disease effecting the teeth have been carefully studied by very many eminent men. The difficulty in many of the works published by these investigators, is in the price which prevents a laboring man from obtaining and reading them, and in the profuse employment of technical terms render- ing the book intelligible only to one familiar with medical literature. Diseases designated as specially belonging to the teeth may be classed as follows : Decay or Caries of the Teeth. Wasting of the Gums or Rigg's Disease. Inflammation of the Pulp or Pulpitis. Incrustations of Lime Salts or Tartar upon the Teeth. DISEASES OF THE TEETH. 21 WHY THE TEETH DECAY. When decay is seen upon a tooth the result of some force is seen. In other words decay is a result of a force acting somewhere or in some way. This decay \sjirst seen in the enamel. At this point the writer diverges from all recognized authorities for the following rea- sons : i They say the decay is (a) a result of acids, (/>) a result of bacteria, germs, spores, bugs, etc., (c) a result of something unknown, (d) in the case of pregnancy the result of a disease. The writer asserts that although all of the above forces may be present, yet they may all be absent, and yet the tooth decay. • In short that the result is and must be from a different cause then either or all, (except the unknown c) since these assumed forces do not aizvays cause the result, decay. The writer believes and assumes and asserts that the decay first seen on the enamel is in reality but a continuation of a decay of the structure beneath. That first the pulp cavity did not contain tooth material. Second that the dentine tubules were not nourished, be- cause of the failure of the pulp cavity, and as a result the enamel was softened and decayed. And primarily that if the blood had contained 22 THE HUMAN TEETH. a sufficient quantity of tooth substance it would have found its way to the pulp cavity, and the tooth would never have decayed. This is a plain matter of fact statement, and is capable of being reduced to the very mini- mum of an assertion as follows : If the blood contains tooth material, the teeth are sound. If the blood does not contain tooth material the teeth decay. In the case of pregnancy, if the system of the mother does not contain bone material (or tooth material), enough to form the skeleton of the child and also enough to sustain her own teeth, she will give her teeth to form the skel- eton of the child growing in her womb. In other words the child growing in the womb, demanding; bone will take from her teeth as much as possible to supply its growing wants. This is why women's teeth decay so rapidly who are bearing children, and who are not fed upon the classes of food which contain bone material or tooth forming material. The cause of tooth decay or caries of the teeth is from a lack of nourishment in the pulp cav- ity. And that means that there is a lack of tooth sustaining material in the body. A bird perched upon the top of a tree see- ing a dead limb would be justified in reason- ing that apart of the tree was dead. DISEASES OF THE TEETH 23 If, on looking at the limb a month after- wards, and finding the decay progressing downwards, the bird should reason that the limb was decaying in towards the trunk, the bird and Mr. Frank Abbott (who occupies so prominent a place in Heitzman's Morphology in the teeth) would be in the same rea- soning scale. For Mr. Abbott says (page 663 op. cit.) that "the fact that caries of the teeth begins as a chemical process scarcely will in my opinion be questioned." But the bird perched on a limb and Mr. Frank Abbott are only apparently correct in their reasoning. The limb truly decays appar- ently downward, but the cause of the limb's decay is in the failure of the root to send nourishment and sap up to the limb. Yet if the bird had seen whole rows of trees decay from the top down he could have said with Abbott: "There can be no question but what these trees decay from some outside chemical cause, and decays downwards." Of course the cause of the tree might be from a borer in the trunk, but in any event we know that the cause of the limb's decay is always from within. Very frequently a dentist will say, as he chisels away at a decayed tooth, "I am going to cut down to the sound dentine." But as a 24 THE HUMAN TEETH. matter of fact he never docs cut down to the sound dentine, since the dentine under decayed enamel is decayed clear to the pulp. In the opinion of the writer, decay of the enamel indicates decay of the dentine, and decay of the dentine indicates a decay of the pulp and an impoverishment of the blood primarily. Just as the limb decays because of some fault of nutrition, either from the sap channels or from the root, so the enamel decays because of faulty nutrition of the dentine and of course some degeneration or fault or lack of nutrition in the pulp cavity, which always indicates that the blood supply is impoverished in that tooth material necessary to sustain the life of the tooth. As the bird is only apparently right in judg- ing the limb decays down, so the dentist, or physiologist who asserts that a tooth com- mences to decay on the outside and decays inward is only apparently correct in his asser- tion. The cause lies deeper than the tooth itself. The cause of tooth decay is a fault of nutri- tion to that tooth. A patient of mine had been for many years without any trouble with his teeth, which were excellent. He was placed in a position where his food was fried green shoulders, ham, bis- DISEASES OF THE TEETH. A EULL UPPER SET OF SOUND TEETH IN AN ADULT. i, i. Central Incisors. 2, 2. Lateral Incisors. 3, 3. Canines (eye teeth.) • 4, 4. First Bicuspids. 5, 5. Second Bicuspids. 6, 6. Six-year-old Molar (first molar.) 7, 7. Twelve-year-old Molar (second molar.) 8, 8. Twenty-year-old Molar (wisdom tooth.) 26 THE HUMAN TEETH. cuits of finest flour made with baking powder, and coffee. In seven months I saw him suffer- ing from a terrible neuralgia, from a decayed molar. His teeth were decayed in spots. The molars were all decayed upon the crowns, the lower incisors were loose and incrusted with tartar. After cleaning the teeth (he would not allow but one of the decayed molars extracted), he changed climates and of course had different food and water. His teeth were placed in the best possible condition. Five years have elapsed and there is no sign of decay. He has been for five years on a diet of tooth mate- rial and given up the use of coffee and sweets entirely. There are many persons who may believe that this young man's teeth decayed because they were not kept clean. This would be. a mistake. The teeth were fairly kept. The food consisting of nitre in the green shoulders, alkali in the baking powder, glucose from sulphuric acid in the sugar destroyed his teeth. As soon as his diet was changed, his softened teeth became hardened. Among the great causes of tooth decay, outside of the food is the decay caused by min- eral and poison medicines. I say causes of tooth decay. DISEASES OF THE TEETH. 27 Every poison giving doctor is a tooth destroyer. Oh! I have no language to express my thorough detestation at the modes of adminis- tering a drug which is already known to bean active destroying agent. Take for instance bromide of potash. This drug, given so reck- lessly and universally by a certain class of stupid doctors, is a tooth destroyer, inasmuch as it destroyed the power of assimilation of food and thus the teeth (and other members of the body also) starve. Muriatic acid is another destructive agent to the teeth. Hydrate of chloral is an agent that seems to paralyze the growth of the teeth. And I have known ladies habitually users of this drug who lost all their teeth. It apparently softens them from the pulp cavity. Calomel, that curse to the human race, has salivated more people (always given under the administrative ability of some regular mineral physician), and destroyed more teeth than any other agent except the glucose sugars and the nasty alkaline and tartaric acid baking powders. A very conscientious physician from Texas wrote me a short time since as follows: "I am satisfied that the horrible condition of the 28 THE HUMAN TEETH, people's teeth in this state is caused by their constant use of purgatives, especially pills com- posed in part of calomel." Calomel and other mercurial preparations are not the only medicines used which are teeth destroyers. Anything contracting the arteries, as for instance ergot or quinine, are liable to contract the blood vessels in the pulp and necessarily injury follows to the tooth. Arsenic eaters have decayed teeth ; so also the eaters of opium and morphine have rotten teeth. Indeed from my experience I may safely assert that the great majority of the poisons used by the allopathic practice are destructive to the teeth. It may be urged that calomel is not given now as much as formerly. But that is a mis- take. The allopathic fraternity constantly keep it and only the most intelligent have dis- carded it. But even if calomel were extinct, (and it is not, as drug houses wholesale medi- cines by the ton in which the principal ingre- dient is calomel.) There are other poisons as deleterious to the dental organs, for in- stance antimony and muriate of iron. The allopathic system is founded on the fact that "the most active poisions are the best medi- cines." Such a system of medicine is a curse DISEASES OF THE TEETH. 29 lo humanity. When I think of allopathy,— huge, pompous, self-conceited, blinding, ty- rannical, vindictive cruel as hell to all classes of humanity, I am ready to kneel down and pray God to hasten the time when that villa- neous practice shall be driven from the world. pulpits, or inflammation of the pulp. This is a somewhat rare disease. The tooth may appear to be perfectly sound, and yet a continued excruciating pain is experi- enced, and .has been described as the worst kind of tooth ache. When we consider that the pulp is composed of nerves, blood vessels and lymphatics, and that any derangement in the pulp cavity may lead to a closing of the canal out through the root of the tooth; and that when the contents of this cavity have been irritated or thickened from any cause they can swell, and from a lack of circulation and because of the pres- ence of heat become very tender and painful. This inflammatory condition of the pulp could not occur except there was previously a vitiated state of the blood. This vitiated blood may be caused by excessive venery ; by a diet of pork, potatoes or oysters, eggs and wine ; or bv eating mouldy fruit; or by a lack of proper cleanliness of the skin 3° THE HUMAN TEETH. Indeed, I am of.the opinion that after exces- sive venery (which drains the blood of its best constituents), lack of cleanliness of the skin is the cause of pulpitis. The insensible perspiration being retained is sent into the general circulation, and if some of those filthy particles get into the pulp cavity through the arterial circulation and cannot return through the venous circulation, congestion, engorge- ment and inflammation might follow. One case came under my observation where the gentleman averred that he "suffered the agonies of death" for several days, and then visiting a dentist was told that "nothing was the matter with the tooth." He suffered a few days longer and finally pushed the top of the tooth off, with a pen holder. The tooth was inwardly decayed and the pulp cavity greatly enlarged. After pushing off the top, the pain ceased, and he allowed the root to remain for some years. In this case there might have been two causes ;•debility, exhaustion and dyspepsia. In another case a lady had a tooth which ached for "days and days". She wanted the tooth out at any hazards. I extracted it and relief was immediate. The tooth was ex- amined under the microscope, and afterwards I examined the pulp. The pulp was in an DISEASES OF THE TEETH. 31 inflammatory condition and the nerve canal clogged. The lady herself was in an un- healthy condition, living in the shade and anemic from repeated abortions. Any thing that can possibly deteriorate the condition of the blood may produce pulpitis. If another case of pulpitis should come under my observation I should bathe the bod}', soak the feet in hot water and apply hot wet cloths to the entire cheek, jaw and neck, and administer such cathartics as might be deemed appropriate, as for instance juglans, rhei or apocynum. Rest is necessary and a mild diaphoretic. Fasting for a few meals would be an aid to hastening the dissolution of the thicker constituent of the blood. WASTING OF THE GUMS, OR RIGG's DISEASE. This disease is sometimes called "Pyorrhoea Alveolar is ^ and consists of a profuse discharge of saliva, a wasting of the gums, so that the necks of the teeth are exposed, and conse- quent loosening of the teeth; usually the smell from ones mouth who has Riggs' disease is verv offensive. Wasting of the gums however is not always accompanied by an excessive discharge of saliva, and there can be an excessive dis- 32 THE HUMAN TEETH. charge of saliva wdthout any wasting of the gums. The causes of this disease are disputed. It is sufficient to know that mercury, iodide of potassium, opium, arsenic, copper, anti- mony, arsenic and preparations of gold, cause ptyalism or salivation. After a person is sal- ivated once, there does not appear any valid reason why that person should not have a wasting of the gums and Riggs' disease. He most certainly has a disease of the stomach for all time. It is a fact that under common administra- tion of the mineral drugs of the regular medi- cal profession, people lose their teeth : and sen- sible persons are usually very inquisitive as to what kind of medicine they are taking. With all their care however, the people get dosed and they find their teeth decayed. The writer hesitates to mention any of these modes of drug medication as causes of salivation or as causes of wasting of the gums as it might hurt the sensitiveness of these polite physicians, but here is what others say : "In the last day men shall run to and fro and knowledge shall be increased."—Daniel. Sir Astley Cooper, England's great surgeon, said : DISEASES OF THE TEETH. 33 "The science of medicine is founded on con- jecture and improved by murder." Dr. Firth said: "There is scarcely a more dishonest trade imaginable than medicine in its present state. The monarch who would entirely interdict the practice of medicine, would deserve to be placed by the side of the most illustrious characters who have ever con- ferred benefits on mankind." Professor Alonzo Clark said : "All of our curative agents are poisons, and as a consequence every dose diminishes the patient's vitality." Dr. Reid said: "More infantile subjects are perhaps destroyed by the pestle and mor- tar, than in the ancient Bethlehem, fell vic- tims to the Herodian massacre." Adam Smith said : "The great success of quacks in England has been altogether owing to the real quackery of the regular phy- scians." However, let the doctors go at the present. One of the fruitful causes of an inflammatory disease of the gums is in the use of wooden tooth picks. The little splinters get into the gums and set up an inflammation and pain, heat, redness, swelling and possibly little abscesses form to let the splinters of the wooden tooth pick out, yet I have known these little tooth picks, set on the table of people who 34 THE HUMAN TEETH. prided themselves on their good taste and good sense. Another great and increasing cause of this form of wasting gums and profuse discharge, is in the use of hot coffee sweetened with glu- cose sugar. This destroys the capillary cir- culation of the gums, expands the enamel of the teeth and weakens the adhesion of the gums to the cementum. This glucose soon sours and ferments. Iced tea, ice water, ice cream, pure cool soda, (made owXoipurc mar- ble dust and pure sulphuric acid, oh the blessed purity of a drug store glass of marble dust and sulphuric acid retailed foaming, as pure soda and pure mead), completes the injuries of the teeth, the gums and the ducts. How shall we cure this disease? Stop using all classes of food that you know are contaminated. Have the teeth cleaned, brush them three times a day with a soft brush and carbolic acid soap. Keep your mouth shut, because if you keep the mouth open the saliva turns sour and ferments. Soap kills the parasites of the mouth and is the safest thing to use. Any dentifrice that claims to remove the tartar will remove the teeth, for any thing that can dis- solve tartar can dissolve teeth ; get the tartar DISEASES OF THE TEETH. 35 scraped oft'by a dentist, use a little pumice stone on a stick to places that you can reach, and you can cure your wasting of the gums and Riggs' disease in two weeks. If, however, you have teeth ulcerated at the root, and abccesses formed or fistulous open- ings, have that tooth or root extracted at once. Bayberry bark pulverized is one of the very best agents known to cleanse the teeth. Ten drops of the tincture of capsicum in a glass of cold water and the mouth rinsed thoroughly will assist in checking the discharge. Don't eat pastry or salt meat or salt or smoked fish. One thing you most assuredly do not want to do, that is to allow some fool dentist to rub the gums with iodine, cocoaine, or any prepa- ration of opium. Be yourself, and bear with the sensitiveness until the infusoria are all out and the nicks of the teeth clean. A tea of bayberry bark, raspberry leaves, and capsi- cum are the best and safest agents to use in this disease, and under this safe, not poisonous treatment, loose teeth can be made to become firmly fixed in the gum. incrustations of tartar. To fully understand the causes of the in- crustations of tartar, we should in some de- 36 THE HUMAN TEETH. gree try to understand the mouth and the secretions which are used to moisten the cav- ity, and also to assist in digesting food. The secretions when together are called saliva. Four distinct set of glands combine to pro- duce saliva, viz. : sublingual glands ; the sub maxillary ; the parotid and the muci- parous glands also called "the mucipar- ous glandules". The saliva contains liquid contents from all these glands. It is asserted that saliva has an alkaline reaction. .But it is often found that a test applied to the saliva shows that it is in fact acid or sour. Possibly this acidity is, in many instances, occasioned by the mouth be- ing kept open, and fermentation taking place. However that may be with some persons, it does not account for all of the acidity found in the mouth. Fragments of food left in be- tween the teeth ferment and thus become acid. Saliva kept in an unclean mouth, is certain to become sour or acid. Saliva itself is said to be comprised of: Water,.....995.16 parts. Albuminous matter, - - 1.34 " Potassium Sulphocyanide, - 0.06 " Calcareous, magnesia and alka- line phosphate, - - - 0.98 " Sodium and potassium chlorides, 0.84 " Mixture of epithelium, - - 1.62 " DISEASES OF THE TEETH. 37 The "tartaron the teeth consists (according to Simon) of earthy phosphates, epithelium- scales, ptyalin and fat; and when examined under the microscope, there are seen abun- dance of pavement and epithelium and mucous corpuscles ; and, in addition to these, numerous arg acicular bodies, and infusoria of the genera vibrio and monas." By refering to the constituents of saliva, and remembering that the saliva is alkaline, and that fermentation changes it to acid, it will be seen that the tartar may come directly from the saliva. The reason why it is deposited, upon the teeth is not so clear. Possibly the enamel may have a special affinity for the phosphates, and having one particle deposited the balance is deposited in the same manner that the stalactites of lime grow, by what is known as the power of accretion. However the tartar may commence, it is certain to never grow less, until it is scaled or scraped off. Any dentifrice that will dissolve tartar, will dissolve the enamel of the teeth, and should not be used. A brush will not take off the tartar, although the daily use of the brush may assist in keeping it from growing rapidly. It must be cleaned, scraped or scaled off, and then kept clean and the causes removed. 3» THE HUMAN TEETH. A diet of salt pork cured with nitre seems to assist in producing tartar. The very worst cases of incrustations of tartar are found among those who have sour stomach, or the dyspepsia. One of the causes may be in the fact that a dyspeptic rarely chews his food well before it is swallowed; or because a dyspeptic almost universally desires soft food and does not give the mouth a chance to throw off by mastication the excess of saliva. The alkalinity of the saliva is neutralized by an acid, and the earthly phosphates are de- posited on the teeth directly at the edge of the gum. Tomes'system of dental surgery says : "The saliva, together with oral and pulmonary mu- cus, holds in solution various salts, which are precipitated in greater or less quantity on nat- ural or artificial teeth, in those situations where the fluids of the mouth remains at rest. Epithelial scales, and other extraneous mat- ters that may be floating in the oral fluids, or are entangled amongst the teeth, become impacted in the precipitated salts, and thus contribute to form the concretion known as tar- tar." (Page 557.) Just the exact reason why the concretion sticks to the teeth is not given. Let us sup- pose the saliva to be one degree warmer than DISEASES OF THE TEETH. 39 the teeth, which could cool if the mouth re- mained open, and we can then see the reason why the earthy or alkaline phosphates could be neutralized by the acid, and the tooth being cooler the earthy mixture sticks to the tooth, in the same manner that fat on the top of a cooling liquid, would stick to a cold iron wedge suspended in the midst of the vessel. It is possible that the bacteria on the lepto- thrix buccalis have an influence on the con- cretion gathering around the neck of a tooth. I saw a gentleman at one time who hawked and raised every few minutes, and would pull little pieces of calculis out of his mouth a dozen times in an hour. He declared that they all came from the throat. In that case, having drank alkaline water for a series of years, the saliva might have been excessively alkaline. Acid from the stomach might have neutralized the acid, and the phosphate was thrown down as a calculus. Tartar is not a sign of disease. It does not cause tooth decay, except as it chemically corrodes the enamel. Tartar however, works dozen or up as the case may be between the gum and tooth, and thus loosens the tooth, It renders the gum sensitive and liable to bleed. Persons cannot feel well who have deposi- tions of tartar upon the teeth. CHAPTER III. THE EFFECTS OF A ROTTEN TOOTH. When a tooth is but little decayed, and the decay is only visible on the outside, there is presumably but little effect upon any other part of the system. This presumption is not correct. The fact that decay has commenced should be a warning to every thinking being that death of a portion of the body follows as a sequence. The stopping of the decay is the act of the wise person. To do this there are two ways. First.—By appropriate food, containing tooth material and absolute cleanliness of the tooth. Really, there is no other way to arrest the decay than by giving the body food material, and nourishment to sustain the decaying structures. For whatever the tooth may be filled with, it is only a question of time, when THE EFFECTS OF A ROTTEN TOOTH. more enamel breaks under the loss of more dentine, because the pulp does not contain nourishment. Second. — To fill the cavity. But this filling of the cavity does not stop the spread of the decay. It is of course a necessary proceeding to fill the tooth, because if not filled the cavity becomes at once a germ recepticle. Because the filling prevents, in a measure, the liquids from getting into the mouth. Because it prevents the food from being deposited in the cavity and there rotting. Because the cavity, the moment there is any depth, becomes a pocket for fermenting food and gases, and is then and there a nest for all sorts of germs and filthy bacteria, lep- tothrix buccalis and other forms of germ, or microscopic life, which assist in destroying more dentine, and thus chemically hastening the decay in a rapidly progressing geometri- cal ratio. But this is not the entire effect of the decay in a tooth. By a look at the nerves situated at the root of each tooth, it will be seen that all nerves from the teeth run to, or are directly connected with the nerves that do run directly into the BASE OF THE BRAIN. ** ' 42 THE HUMAN TEETH. Now it is highly important that we recog- nize the fact that decay of dentine, and decay of enamel, do not always include decay of the nerve tissue. If the tooth, even on the outside (enamel), is decayed, the dentine is decayed under it. Hence this decay effects in a greater or less degree the pulp cavity. And when the pulp cavity is very much effected, we have tooth- ache. Instances are known where the tooth, ulcerated at its roots, was sound on the surface, thus necessitating its extraction. Decay or rot in a tooth does not end here. The decay effects in an appreciable manner the maxillary nerves. The base of the BRAIN IS DETERIORATED BY A DECAYED tooth. I have no doubt in my mind that persons with rotten teeth, children, scholars, adults and people of all conditions, have their MEMORY, THEIR SENSE OF SMELL,SENSE OF hearing, of seeing, and in short their entire perceptive faculties deadened and partially destroyed by the effects of rot or decay in a tooth. The author's experience on this point would fill a volume. We have room but for a few cases, which will show the meaning we wish to convey. -ntleman in Stark county, Illinois, had THE EFFECTS OF A ROTTEN TOOTH. 43 a son fourteen years of age who had been partially deaf, and in a measure blind, for about four years. Eminent medical men, oculists and aurists, had treated him, and taken the father's money, without any perma- ment benefit to the boy. Upon examination the two lower six year old molars were found shells, rotten inside and presumably filled with bacteria, beside the dreadful filth of food which could not be kept out. The other teeth were sound. Ad- vice was given to have these two rotting, filthy stumps extracted. As soon as they were out the headache ceased and the eyes commenced to regain their natural look. In four months the boy was well. If any comment were nec- essary upon any case like this it would cer- tainly be severe upon those pretended men of science wdio doctored the eyes and ears, when the cause of those deseases of those organs lay in a rotten condition of the inferior max- illary nerve, arising from two rotten teeth. A gentleman had upon his left upper jaw a rapidly growing tumor. No surgeon or den- tist could do more than to suggest that it (the tumor) be cut out, and the jaw scraped. The writer advised him to have two teeth extracted that were filled with amalgam. The teeth were extracted. The tumor ceased to grow 44 THE HUMAN TEETH. and in two years had almost wholly disap- peared. This gentleman had also an eftection of the eye (motes in the eye, or as they are called Muscle volitanites), and was parti- ally deaf in the left ear. Both of these afflictions were permanently benefitted by the extraction of these two carious and amalgam filled teeth. A child aged eleven had persistent headache for four years, and received treatment by the best physicians without avail. The writer took out a dozen foul smelling fragments of her temporary set, and her headache was cured. A gentleman aged forty-five was in a degree insane. He had a number of teeth filled with amalgam on both sides and a number of slight- ly decayed teeth. The amalgam was taken out and replaced with gold. The teeth which were ulcerated at the roots were extracted. The small cavities were filled with gold. He paid scrupulous attention to his dental organs and in less than a year his brain had recovered its natural power. Rotten teeth in children sometimes cause St. Vitus dance, or chorea. The author has known many cases where these unfortunate sufferers have received permanent benefit by having their rotting fragments of teeth re- moved. THE EFFECTS OF A ROTTEN TOOTH. 45 A lady of Bloomington, 111., had a headache on the left side for a number of years. Her teeth were sound. She had one large cavity filled with amalgam, in the upper second molar. The author advised the removal of this amalgam. It was removed and revealed a mass of putrid material under the filling. The tooth was properly treated and filled with gold. The headache was permanently cured. Are these statements true? Undoubtedly the writer believes every word he writes. But can it be credited, that in May, 1884, at a medical convention held in Cincinnati, Ohio, when some of these facts were stated, a doctor jumped up and asserted that he had heard of looking down a horse's mouth, but he never looked at the teeth ! It is no wonder the thinking man or the thinking woman is afraid of a doctor. Doctors have much to learn. All schools are equally ignorant of the effect of rotting teeth, and the reader who is not capable of thinking and acting for himself or herself, and who trusts one of these unwise pompous, self conceited fellows to prescribe for some fancied malady of the head, eyes, ears or throat, is in much danger of pay- ing out money for no benefit, beside keeping some putrid bed of germs in the mouth to breed a pestilence in the brain. For the 46 THE HUMAN TEETH. effects of rotten teeth are felt, in the most innate precious structures of the brain. The decay of one tooth or a cavity in one tooth indicates more than is apparent. For instance : a molar tooth, of a young person from sixteen to twenty, shows decay. Unless this decay is arrested, it follows that all the teeth in front of the decayed tooth are liable to have the decayed material sent to all the teeth in front of them. Why? Because the rotting material of the molar tooth passes down through the pulp cavity, and poisons the same artery that carries sup- plies to the front teeth. Also because the decay of a molar indicates that the nourishment is not sufficient to keep up the repairs in that tooth, either because it is larger and requires more nourishment, or because it is nearer the source of tooth supply, namely : the heart or stomach ; because, as we have already stated, all the tooth material is first in the stomach and then being transform- ed into blood, and sooner feels the effect of a vitiated supply; or because, as in the case of pregnancy, the circulation is more active or greater, as three sources of supply (though three roots) are greater than in the incisors having one root; however, it is a fact that the molars nearly always decay first. THE EFFECTS OF A ROTTEN TOOTH. 47 Therefore, if a molar has commenced to de- cay you should arrest that decay by appro- priate food at once. I believe that in such cases NUTS are the most useful of all articles of diet. In fact, I know hundreds of persons who have hardened their teeth and arrested all symptoms of decay by this nut diet. But the fools who are so excessively particular, as to their appearance in society, and those mis- erable hearted, small minded, cursed of God creatures, whose affections, such as they are, reach no higher than a piece of embroidery or a hand painted baked plate, never ought and never will understand any of the philosophy of the apostle who wrote, "I beseech you breth- ren, that you present your bodies a lining sacrifice wholly acceptable unto God." Just think of rotten-toothed animals, with the decaying stumps teeming with myriads of maggots and foul creatures, daring to think of their bodies as living sacrifices, to that Deity whose natural laws they have transgressed, and whose paternal care they have mocked. Imagine, if possible, a false plate in the mouth composed of sulphur, rubber and quicksilver poisoning and rotting the body, ever becom- ing a living sacrifice. The idea is absurd. They have bodies that are living pest heaps. Walking bunches of fertilizing material. CHAPTER IV. TOOTH MATERIAL. Tooth material is that material in the blood which is used to build up the tooth structure. The building up of a tooth, or the harden- ing the tooth and also a part of what is com- monly called decay, is a vital process. The building up, is adding to, and decay in most cases at first, is a taking away from the tooth. A man who eats, drinks, breathes, excretes, grows, thinks, acts, travels and generates force, performs all of these acts, because of some force or power in him which is tin- known, and which is called the vital or living power, as against inertness or death. A living man has a vital power. So also have all living creatures and plants. TOOTH MATERIAL. 49 A mummy or a rock, a brick, a machine, has no vital power. They are inert. A dead body has no vitality. A tooth is considered by some as a bone. By others this is denied, because of the sup- posed lack of the Haversian canals. The composition of bone is said to be about two-thirds mineral matter, and one-third ani- mal matter. Bone may be dead, and in the dead condition in the living body it is said to be '•'•necrosed". "Necrosis" of bone means the death of bone. Professor Lionel Beale thinks that " one- twelfth " of the bones are alive, and the rest, or eleven-twelfths, are not alive. He says : "the nucleus or bone cell" is all that is alive. This is an error, for we well know that if it were dead it could not stay there. It is true a foreign substance, as a bullet or glass or needle may be in the body and remain while the person lives, but, in this case, nature or the vital force, builds a wall around the offending object, keeping it away and shut out from the living parts. Nature has not built any walls around, or shut out eleven-twelfths of our bones. They are in intimate contact, and joined with the living parts of bones, and are in some manner dependant upon the living matter, so that we must conclude that they . ' * , Utt.'1 ->«L Ui„-r : , '.\V' ■'* - ; 3^333 ) 5° THE HUMAN TEETH. receive nourishment, sustenance or warmth from the one-twelfth of what he calls bone cell. We say that a "tooth is dead" that has lost the pulp contents, viz., the nerves and blood- vessels. But while so far as building up or hardening the tooth or sensitiveness this asser- tion may be correct; yet, as long as the cementum is attached to the gum, and the tooth is embedded in its socket, it is not wholly true that it is dead, because the body of the dentine of the tooth may still be nour- ished by the gums through the circulation. When the tooth is a skeleton and the life is out of the body, or when the tooth is out of its attachments entirely, and in the dentist's drawer, it may be said to be dead. hardening the teeth. The egg contains the materials for bone, muscle, feathers, blood pigment, etc. If the hen warms the egg (vitality being in the egg) for twenty-one days all of these materials are brought to perfection, After hatching, the continued growth of the chicken depends in a great degree upon the food that is provided. If the constituent parts of the bone be scanty, the bone will be slight, light and brittle. If the constituent parts of the bone are abundant, the chicken will have large bones. TOOTH MATERIAL. 51 Upon the same principle, children of some parents have excellent teeth. The mothers being provided with bone material before birth and during nursing, and the child fed on soups, oatmeal, nuts, cornmeal after wean- ing. Possibly the nuts may not seem appropri- ate as a diet for young children, and it is granted, that among a set of children who are fed on baked meats, pastry, compounds of eggs and milk, (custards), and the baking powders of to-day, nuts are an uncertain article to place in the stomach. So also, nuts are quite inadmissible in a child dosed on calomel, bichloride of mercury, or in fact any of the allopathic, eclectic or homoeopa- thic poisons used as medicines. These most ignorant and deluded victims should not and cannot eat nuts, as food or as luxuries, because they say the nuts derange the stomach. As a matter of fact, the poison medicines have already deranged the stomach, and the stomach is powerless to digest the harmless nuts. But I have never seen a healthy child that could not digest walnuts, almonds, filberts, chestnuts or pecans. And I have seen all classes of children as hungry after these edi- bles as other animals, and have known of CROWN. FORAMEN. FORAMEN TOOTH MATERIAL. 53 A VERTICAL SECTION OF A MOLAR TOOTH, Showing the arrangement of Nerves, Blood Vessels, and especially the pulp cavity. The point to be shown by this illustration is this: All the nour- ishment of the tooth passes through the apex of the roots, up or down, to the Pulp Cavity. From the pulp cavity the tooth material passes into the Dentine and to the Enamel. The entire argument of this book is based on the fact — for it is a fact — that the tooth grown from the inside; and that if the tooth is not nourished from tooth material, which is first in the blood and next in the pulp cavity, it must decay, because it cannot repair itself. But if the tooth is nour- ished from tooth material in the pulp cavity, it can never decay, except by chemical errosion from the outside. For the tooth mate- rial from the pulp cavity sustains and builds up the dentine, and, passing through the dentine, builds up and hardens the enamel. The pulp cavity is the repair shop and the base of supplies for the tooth. In this pulp cavity also dwells the master spirit that oversees, builds up, strengthens and presides over the destinies of a live tooth. Here, also, is seen the reason why women bearing children lose their teeth. The blood vessels in the pulp cavity take up the den- tine, or take up particles of the inside part of the tooth, and carries these particles, or allows them to be carried, into the general circu- lation. From the general circulation this tooth material is carried to the womb, where it is given up to form the skeleton of the child. And thus is seen the cause of a woman losing her teeth as she bears chil- dren, if not properly fed. The poor, unfortunate woman gives up her teeth to assist in forming a skeleton for her baby. And the ignorant man does not know enough to give her food containing tooth material or bone forming material to build the child's skeleton and preserve the teeth of her whom he has sworn to cherish and protect. 54 THE HUMAN TEETH. children who continued daily eating nuts for w^eeks without apparent damage. I do not class the earth nut a rack is hypogea or ground nut, commonly called the " pea nut," as -a nut in the acceptation of the word nut. Moreover, I do not consider them very largely useful, nutritious or beneficial. The habit of eating them at all times, and in all places is, in my view, the last degree vulgar. In this matter I am possibly prejudiced. That the tooth grows from within outwards and hardens as it grows, is an idea that is very hard to get into any person's head. Yet such is the fact. The germ of a child's tooth is soft. After years of slow growth that tooth may become hard enough to withstand cen- turies of exposure. Every atom of that almost imperishable enamel was once fluid in the blood. The life power or vitality plac- ed the constituent portions (which must have previously been in the blood) of that pabulum first in the pulp cavity, coming into the pulp cavity by the blood vessels, thence or carried through the dentine tubules and hardens as enamel. I do not believe " softened enamel" can exist where the pulp cavity is healthy, and is well supplied with tooth material. And I have seen softened teeth, aching, a portion of the pulp exposed, hardened gradually, TOOTH MATERIAL. 55 being too tender to fill and almost to brush. I say that I have seen these teeth grow harder, the aching stop, the tenderness cease, and the cavities remain unfilled for a period of years. The food was at first soups with nuts twice daily, varied of course to suit the tastes of the patient, corn bread, oat-meal mush and milk at night, very little sugar. No baker's bread no pastry, no candy, coffee, tea or potatoes. The aching pulp was treated with a bit of cotton moistened with glycerine and carbolic acid, touched as often as sensitive, with a bit of cotton moistened with the acid and kept scrupulously clean. The writer has had personal experience enough to know that these assertions about hardening the teeth are correct, and that any one with a spoonful of brains may peserve their teeth to a healthy old age. CHAPTER V. THE FILLING OF TEETH. There is no question as to the utility of proper fillings for teeth. Whether those fill- ings are to be of rubber, phosphate of zinc, amalgam, tin, silver or gold, is a matter for serious considerations. The rubber filling is not rubber. The so-called rubber or vulcan- ite contains mercury, sulphur and rubber. These articles are in proportions of 24, 36 and 40, and mercury is a mineral, unfit to be placed in contact with any portion of the human body. That all amalgam is capable of generating electricity is acknowledged by the most ardent advocates. J. F. Flagg, D. D. S., the most eminent of amalgams makes several pos- itive statements to this effect. Professor J. THE FILLING OF TEETH. 57 Taft of Ohio, Watling of Ann Arbor, Michi- gan, and a host of others, state positively that amalgam as fillings induce, cause, and pro- duce electricity. For one, I know from a cruel and expensive experience that an amalgam filling is a producer of electricity. What of it? This is the result. A steady current of two or three or ten years duration affects the brain, and as a consequeuce the entire body. The current is not felt as a current, but as a stim- ulating effect Wrhose cause is in the tooth. In many cases the'eyes suffer, in others the ears are the losers, in all cases the memory is defective after an amalgam filling has been in from one to three years. In women this stim- ulation affects the spinal column, and thous- ands of heart broken women suffer from what they suppose to be a womb disease, when the cause is in the teeth in the shape of an amal- gam filling. But how does it produce electricity ? This question demands a careful answer, and in answering it I will presume by stating that in my experience not one dentist in twenty KNOWS THE COMPONENT PARTS of the Stuff USed as amalgam ; more than that, I assert without any hesitation that the dentists who most com- monly use amalgam are as densely ignorant of the compound amalgam as the ignorant vie- 58 THE HUMAN TEETH. tims they are robbing and swindling. For a proof of this statement I refer to the book called Plastic Filling, by J. Foster Flagg, a great advocate of this thieving way of brain destroying. For another proof let the reader ask any dentist and hear him lie out of his unwarrantable ignorance. The principal ingredients of amalgam are tin, copper and quicksilver. The metals cadmium, zinc, silver and sometimes gold is used. But quicksilver is always used in all amalgam fillings. Those familiar with electricity state that there is "a change in the molecular arrange- ment of the atoms" during electricity. The dentist is ignorant of the nature of the compound he uses. I submit the authority of the great advocate of amalgam, J. Foster Flagg, D. D. S., who says "not one dentist in a hundred understands" the component parts of the stuff he uses. Your dentist will lie out by calling it a "sil- ver" filling, and this is only partly true,— it will be a quicksilver filling. Amalgam destroys the eye sight by the electricity caused or produced; it ruins the hearing and renders one nervous, sad and downhearted ; it destroys the memory, it affects THE FILLING OF TEETH. 59 injuriously by this electrical action, the base of the brain. The cause of electricity may be supposed (and I say "supposed" because in this case at the present writing I cannot state positively the methods of the amalgam forming or pro- ducing electricity ; but, that electricity is pro- duced there is not a particle of doubt. That is a fact. I cannot at this time explain the causes of that fact, any more than I can ex- plain why the bite of some snakes is poison,) to be, because tin, zinc or copper with acids produce or generate electricity. The amal- gam contains the minerals and the silver the acid and the electricity is generated. From the teeth this constant current is sent to the spinal column. This is of course an assertion ; but in hun- dreds of instances it has been proven that amalgam fillings have caused headache, caused weak eyes, caused deafness, and feelings of despair and melancholy, which have ceased when these most horrible causes of torture have been removed from the mouth. I have no language that can do justice to a dentist who fills teeth with the miserable quicksilver filling. Within five years I have gathered enough living witnesses against amalgam to condemn 6o THE HUMAN TEETH. it from the civilized world. But I do not ex- pect any one to heed this except those who have "passed from death unto life." As for the dentists who use it, I hold them in the same contempt that civilized beings may be supposed to hold towards the lepers of the Sandwich Islands. They are destroyers of domestic peace ; the causes of more mental unhappiness than I could describe. I sa}r de- liberately— and have said for five years — let the dentist who fills teeth with any preparation of quicksilver be accursed of God. I assert, upon the authority of the most emi- nent dentists living, that an amalgam filling cannot be as good as gold, because it is never tight. When it hardens it contracts, and this con- traction leaves a space between the filling and the dentine for liquids to go into and deepen the cavity. It is true that an amalgam filling apparently preserves the teeth, but it does so because it kills the circulation in the pulp cavity ; it kills the nerves and blood vessels supplying nour- ishment to the tooth. The dentist who inserts an amalgam filling has only the same excuse that the whiskey seller and the keeper of a house of prostitution. He knows it to be wrong, but he does it THE FILLING OF TEETH. 6l because if he does not do it some one else will do it and earn a dollar that he needs. This is the argument of a horse thief, and it is the argument of an amalgam filling dentist. I know I shall not for a long time stop the amalgam business, but I shall have the satisfac- tion of knowing that I have done my duty towards God and my fellow sufferers in this world, and my duty done I will not have to answer the question "Am I my brother's keeper ?" There is a class of people who see nothing until the time for their improvement has passed ; then indeed they become over wise. Such people on hearing that teeth can be hardened at once, ask "Why did we never hear of this before? Where is the authority for such statements? How did you find out?" with a hundred other exclamations of surprise, and go on in their beaten track of tooth rotting by their eating and drinking. The thief who fills the teeth (and lying calls it a "silver filling" and knows he lies when he does this), with this compound de- serves to be sent to prison for 21 years. Oh I have no language to express my detestation of the robber of human peace of mind, who under the specious pretense of saving teeth, turns the brain chaotic from a direct poison and direct 62 THE HUMAN TEETH. current of electricity running from the teeth to the brain. It is worse than nothing since it does not save, only by turning the tooth into a dead tooth. A poor woman, wife of a farmer near Gran- ite Falls, Minn., came to me to have a tooth extracted. The unfortunate woman had suffered with a headache for twelve years from the presence of quicksilver fillings. The den- tist had made a few dollars by the operation, and had left his victim an invalid for twrelve years. How do you think such a man will stand before the judgment seat of God? Of course one can claim that the dentist, does not know, certainly in very many instan- ces he does not. Neither does the cannibal know his heinous crime in killing human beings, and the amalgam filling dentist and the cannibal are on same level, with odds in favor of the cannibal, in that the cannibal, puts his victim out of bodily pain at once, while the quicksilver stuffing tooth doctor adds a fresh torture to the victim at each op- portunity of filling a cavity. In the face of all this swindling and rob- bing on the part of dentists, we should not for- get the noble men who, belonging to the great army of well doers on earth, have fought this dreadful crime with all their power. Among THE FILLING OF TEETH. 63 the noblest stands Doctor George Watt of Xenia, Ohio, Professor J. Taft of Cincinnati, Dr. E. S. Talbot of Chicago, Professor Watling of Ann Arbor, Michigan, and others who have stood out honestly against this fraud and pestilential destructive, and brain destroying habit, of filling cavities of teeth with quicksilver, and saying it is a silver filling. What a lie ! There is a character in a book called " The Tritons," who asserts that it is right to de- ceive, to sell, and to deceive to gain. The old Jesuits maxim that " the end justifies the means." The large majority of dentists act out this deceptive character. They assert that quicksilver is as good as gold, keeping back the truth of its making electricity, and its being poison. Let the people understand their subterfuges and lies, and class them as they are, liars and thieves, in the midst of a most noble profes- sion. Let it be understood that a dentist who uses amalgam is a thief. A dentist who may possibly be ignorant of its effects is yet as guilty as the knowing one inasmuch as the effect is the same, whether he does it in io-norance or in knowledge. In the character alluded, the old man ad- vises to turn the specked side of the apple 64 THE HUMAN TEETH. down, in order to sell it. This species of deceit seems to extend through all professions. In the profession of dentistry there is nothing more degrading than this deceit, and nothing lower than stupid robbery of human happi- ness by poisoning with quicksilver. And in the whole range of detrimental influences operating against the intellectual man none are more surely destructive than the quicksil- ver amalgam filling for the teeth. CHAPTER VI. THE CARE OF THE TEETH. A man may beat his railroad fare, and this is unfortunately the fault with many men who pride themselves upon their smartness, or their "business" capacity. One may steal horses, lands or stocks. One may cheat at cards, and commit almost any crime against society and not be found out and punished. His life may be apparently fortunate, and he may die in his bed a natural death as the books say, " at a ripe old age." But he can- not sin against, or cheat, or default any por- tion of the body, be it ever so little, without having a certain penalty or punishment, and that penalty cannot be evaded by any hocus pocus, or by any plea of ignorance, or any promise to do better in the future. Nature is a cash creditor. The bookeeper is never asleep ; never makes mistakes, never errs on judgment, and above all never hesi- 66 THE HUMAN TEETH. tates to claim the uttermost farthing of due, from the oldest gray beard, or the youngest infant,— from the most pious recluse or the most brazen bawd. On the other hand, nature rew*ards all classes of people with the most bountiful re- wards for obedience, and it does not matter in this regard whether the obedient one is a saint or a sinner. The rewrard for obedience is certain and ample in every case. It is not my wish to be understood as reiter- ating the philosophy of Napoleon, who asser- ted that'' Providence was on the side of heaviest artillery." This was a lie bred from the beast and infidelity. St. Helena proved that lie. It is true that "the battle is not to the strong, nor the race to the swift." I say the latter is true, because "those that fight for us are more than those who fight against us," and there is a power which backs up, sustains, up- holds the weak, who are strong in the desire to be obedient to the laws of God. But a crime of omission, a neglect, or the crime of commission, a filching from the body, is a debt to be paid by the body, and by the body only. It is material in its character and must and will be paid materially by the body. This law applies to the TEETH. THE CARE OF THE TEETH. 67 Saint or sinner, priest or felon, the laws of the body are served by the same nature, with the same penalties and the same rewards. The teeth demand nourishment. They also demand care. Nature demands it for the teeth. Do it; give that care, and be rewarded with sound teeth ; or withold it, and receive the punishment, rotten or absent teeth. The first care is to provide suitable and proper nourishment for the teeth by the way of the blood. This is of the first importance. The second is cleanliness. While the enamel is among the hardest substances in the world, it can be softened by the action of HEAT, ACID and MOISTURE. If one allows the particles of food,—bread, butter, pickles, shreds of meat, fish or pastry to remain between the teeth, in the spaces between the teeth, such articles form a poul- tice which sooner or later soften even the hardest enamel. If one drinks hot drinks, or much of the dreadful sugar (made with sulphuric acid), or the tea manufactured from many unknown in- gredients, colored with iron, arsenic or copper, he or she may be sure that nature eventually demands and gets a settlement, by (a des- truction of) a claim against a portion of the covering of the teeth, the enamel. 68 THE HUMAN TEETH. The habit of drinking ice water,-iced tea, or ice cream, is contrary to nature's laws ; be- cause it contracts the enamel, and the next hot drink expands it and cracks it, leaving fissures into the dentine. The administration of iron in any form, especially the muriatic acid so commonly given to weakly persons, is against the laws of nature, and the penalty is destruction. The law of destruction of teeth, from eating hot slop food, is seen to perfection in the case of animals fed from the brewrer's refuse. These animals in a few weeks have their teeth drop out, leaving the most dreadful looking mouths in the world. But the cracking of the enamel is not the only cause of destruction following hot drinks. The gum should cover the whole of that part of the tooth up to the neck. This is called the part "below the gum." That which covers the cementum is called the peri-cementum or the covering around the cementum. With a healthy person the gum is not alone close to the tooth, but the blood vessels go into the cementum and thus the tooth is nourished and held in the most secure manner in the jaw. The gum is supplied with blood-vessels, which go through the gum in the finest of THE CARE OF THE TEETH. 69 net work and as in other parts of the covering of the body or the dermoid tissue. The arte- rial, the venous and the capillary circulation, are all represented in the gum. As long as this circulation is perfect the gum is close to the tooth, holding it as solid as if cemented into its place. When, however, these capillaries and blood- vessels are in a weakened and lax condition, then the gum falls away or recedes from the tooth, and leaves that tooth loosened in the socket. Hot drinks, iced drinks, smoke from pipe or cigar, hot food, especially hot salt meat or warm salt fish, are directly inimical to this healthy capillary circulation in the gum, be- cause the heat expands the arterial circulation and cold contracts it. This produces what is called congestion of the gums, or an inflam- matory condition which sooner or later leaves the gum in a dying or dead condition. The gum can no longer nourish the tooth through this cementum. This is not all. The space between the gum and the tooth forms a pocket or pouch. Particles of food get into this pocket or pouch and ROT. This rotten mess of food breeds bacteria, and a host of living germs, that destroy the 7° THE HUMAN TEETH. living tissue and form nests of filthy matter which destroys the action of the saliva, and renders the breath simply dreadful. Oh these horrible graveyards of mouths. But this is not the end of the matter. These pockets of matter mix their filth, with every mouthful of food, and pass it into the stomach. Here the germs are offensive to the gastric juice, and, in short, this rotten matter from the teeth rots the stomach, and the second stomach, and the food is not digested. Now the poor victim goes to a doctor (the word doctor in Latin signifies a teacher), and it is of no consequence whether he has an old school or a new school doctor, an allo- pathist or a homceopathist, eclectic, a physo- medical, all are alike in their diagnosis, dyspepsia, the dosing follows the particular dogmas of the school from which the medical man graduated. Its all dose down medicine, big pill, little pill, plaster, lotion, electricity or diet, anything for dyspepsia but the right thing, which is attention to the teeth. In addition to this, depositions of tartar accumulate all round the teeth and this grows down, pressing out the gum until the tooth is lifted out of its socket. What is to be done for this condition of the mouth ? THE GARE OF THE TEETH. 7* If nothing is done, and the doctors doctor the poor fool for dyspepsia, while his teeth are in this condition, we may be sure that they will sooner or later doctor him into the ground. If, however, the wretch who owns the teeth that we have tried to describe, wakes up to the fact that he has disobeyed the laws of nature, and is paying the penalty for that disobedience, then the first step will be to clean those dreadful teeth. Scrape off the tartar; syringe out the mat- ter ; scrub the mouth with soap and water three to five times a day. Have the food soft, neither too hot or too cold. Have a tooth brush at all times, and use it religiously after every meal, and morn- ing and night. Get a soft hair brush at first and gradually procure a harder set of brushes. Have a skein of floss silk to get every par- ticle out from between the teeth; (a wooden tooth pick is a fraud, a snare and a delusion). Rinse the mouth out with cold water : let a dentist scrape oft' every particle of tartar, and in every manner keep the teeth as clean as possible, and improvement will commence at once. Keep the mouth shut. 72 THE HUMAN TEETH. While all this is correct, we must not lose sight of the nourishment. Personally the author advises the immediate cooking of a bone four hours, so as to get the lime salts from the bone into the water and this to be drank three times a day. How to do this. Procure a beef bone and have it broken up with the butcher's cleaver. Put this on in four quarts of cold water, and have it well skimmed as it comes to a boil. This is important, as the material rising on the water ought not to be boiled in, as it is re- fuse matter, consisting of blood, etc., etc., that ought not to be eaten. Let this boil four hours, if the water boils away add more boiling water from the tea kettle. When the four hours are expired, add salt sufficient to have it taste well. A crust of bread, or an onion or a bit of parsely may be added for a flavor if desired. It is now ready, and may be strained through a cloth or a cullender. It can be drank cold or warm. This soup contains the basis substance of the tooth. I remember a girl whose teeth decayed and whose jaw was partly necrosed, (dead), and the doctors cut it out. One of the so-called THE CARE OF THE TEETH. 73 surgeons was lamenting that he could not arrest the death of the bony system. I tried to explain that the body probably lacked lime salts. Upon this he flew into a passion and exclaimed, oh! the other doctors have been giving "phosphates of lime and lime water, till she is limed all through now." So the girl died. In my practice I advise a solution of the bones, or rather a decoction of bones, and I am certain that I can arrest bone decay by this treatment in twenty-four hours, and I promise any reader of this book that decay of living teeth can be arrested in one day, by relying upon this remedy just mentioned, because it supplies tooth sub- stance at once to the place needed, viz. : the blood and the general circulation. Another excellent hardener of teeth is the use of walnuts, almonds, filberts, hickory nuts, pecans, castanos, and hazel nuts. They are tooth hardeners. Of course some over zealous apostle will want you to crack the nuts with your teeth. But don't do it. Crack the nuts with a hammer, and chew up the kernels with time and patience, until the meats of the nuts are in a fine paste and fully ready to be dissolved. This chewing of the food is also a certain remedy for dyspepsia, because the food is 74 THE HUMAN TEETH. well mixed with saliva, the gastric juice is better able to digest the food. Again, if the saliva is not used up, it is a source of acid in the mouth, and has a tenden- cy to soften the enamel, or dissolve the enamel by chemical corrosion. Not only is this the fact, but it is probably true that retained saliva in the glands (maxillary, lingual and buccal glands), assists in hatching germs, (leplo- thrix, bacteria or micrococci), as these germs develop very rapidly in acid secretions of the mouth. Whether this is true literally, viz. : that retained saliva softens the enamel of the teeth, may be argued and disputed. But it is a fact that those persons who are in the habit of eating rapidly have soft and easily decayed teeth. It is also a fact that food half chewed, or swallowed unmixed with saliva remains in the stomach for days and rots there. I had always been taught to believe that food of any kind after a few hours was passed out of the stomach. But this is not true in every case. I have known food to be vomited up some days after having been eaten. I have known, and so has the reader, persons— men, women and children—whose breath was thick enough to cut and more offensive than a vault, and this rotting of various articles of THE CARE OF THE TEETH. 75 food in the stomach accounts for their horrible breath. Meat, as fried beefsteak, is one of the most common articles of undigested food. It is tough to commence with and not chewed in the next place, and so remains and rots. This rotting food sends up its grave yard smell to the mouth, and as a chemical gas is capable of injuriously affecting the mouth and teeth. Another injurious habit is drinking large quantities of fluid while eating. Washing the food down into the stomach, and flooding out the gastric juice ; or rather diluting the gastric juice so that it does not have power to digest food. Not much drink wiiile eating is a good rule. The less the better. This fact leads me to assert that teeth are not properly cared for where the person bolts the food or swallows it without mastication ; in short, the person who eats hurriedly cannot take care of the teeth. Chewing up the food well helps to preserve the necessary circulation in the gum around the tooth. Chewing hard crusts is good ex- ercise for the teeth. Even gum chewers and tobacco chewers have much more solid teeth, than those people who live on milk toast, coffee, tea and a general slop diet. I have 76 THE HUMAN TEETH. never seen a case of Rigg's disease where the patient chewed up his food well. This may not strike the average reader as of much mo- ment because his or her teeth are all right at the present. But I assert and think I can prove that half a slice of bread chewed up well and swallowed with the saliva is of much more benefit to body and mind than half a chicken, a potato, two pieces of pie and six slices of bread washed down with three to five cups of strong sweetened coffee. And I am also cer- tain that one oatmeal cake half as large and well chewed, and mixed with saliva before swallowing will do more towards hardening the teeth and preserving all the bony struc- tures of the body than a wheel barrow load of Irish potatoes sent to the stomach swimming in swine fat. This is a matter which the reader can profitably investigate while young. It has also been observed that those persons who do not bathe the body often are also lia- ble to rotten teeth. I do not doubt this, be- cause any rot or decay or effete material in the body has a tendency to deteriorate the blood and to destroy the vitality (or life power) of the circulation, hence a person who does not bathe the body as often as necessary to keep the body clean has impure blood, and this must affect the teeth injuriously. THE CARE OF THE TEETH. 77 Of course where a young man or a young woman lives in the country, either at home or among strangers, this habit of bathing is much neglected, because the older ones do not provide conveniences for the daily bath. This is a great pity, but crying pity doesn't help it. Water is cheap, and a hand basin costs five or ten cents; towels are to be had for five cents and better ones for twenty-five cents, a cake of soap ten cents and a tooth brush, the best, thirty to seventy-five cents. Now looking at these figures how long would it take any one to have the conveniences for a morning bath. An old box, a shelf, a pitcher, a pail to bring the water in over night, and the thing is done. A dollar will cover all expenses and have the room so that cleanliness is next to Godliness. But I have seen houses where there was not even a washstand in the room, and the man had his thousands in the bank. I have seen, and presume the reader has been at houses, where the man had blooded stock run- ning way up into the thousands, and yet his toilet service consisted of an old tin wash dish on a stump and a flour sack for a towel. A piece of sticky yellow soap was a luxury. What can be done ? Let us look at the situation. A young 78 THE HUMAN TEETH. man or young woman who cannot take a bath daily, and who has no opportunity to take care of the teeth, is certain sooner or later to lose the teeth and lose the health. Look all over the country at the young lab- oring man and see how few of them are sound and well physically. Look at the young men who work for so much per month on the farms and in the work shops, and see how few of them are mentally sound. How few of them have books, how few of them look well—pimples, rotten teeth, foul breath, weak- nesses which are better left undescribed, and a thousand and one things which make them mentally weak. Why is this? Why is a farm life so despised by the active, cleanly portion of the young of both sexes? Because there is no opportunity of taking care of the body ; because they cannot keep clean. "Country cousins" is a term used as syn- onomous with pimply faces, rotten teeth, dirty finger nails and abrupt manners. Why? Because the habit of having a pure body is not enforced and seen to daily by the parents. Because the sleeping chamber is destitute of all save the bed and its accumulation of feather beds and musty curtains ; because the smell of the stable is as common in the house as out; because more, yes a hundred times THE CARE OF THE TEETH. 79 more, care is given to the breeding of a sow, a mare or a cow than to the raising of the hu- man progeny. Yet the cowr, sow and mare go to the market, while the children should al- ways remain the solicitude of the parents. I recall a case in Texas, where the father was a wealthy cattle raiser, owning, it was said, $300,000 worth of stock. He had a two story house, but the lower floor was a dirt floor. The only daughter was sent to New York to school, on returning she fitted up the upper part of the house in the most elaborate fashion— Turkish rugs, costly piano and elegant fur- niture. But the father went bare-footed in the house and preferred to live on his dirt floor. There are families who have been poor and have amassed a competence, yet they now live in the same filthy manner that they did when in the direst poverty. I know a family, the head of which is worth a quarter of a million. The oldest son is the next thing to an idiot, his imbecility brought on I believe by rotten teeth and no bathing. How much would that father and mother give to have that son restored? And yet a few dollars expense, or even a dollar in bath- ing and care and teaching at the right time 8o THE HUMAN TEETH. would have kept the boy bright, cheerful and in the front rank of intellect. I knew a family of seven. The mother and father both pious, good people. The children were exceptionally good. The oldest girl was killed by a fall, the oldest boy was for a long time partially insane, and never could acquire correct business habits. The second oldest boy joined the methodist church and when seventeen or eighteen years of age thought himself called to preach ; the father thought the boy too young and said so ; the methodist minister, whose name was Abbott, (this occurred at Augusta, Maine, in 1857), left the house declaring his views about the loss of the young man's soul. The young man, discouraged, sick and friendless, went into the barn and hung hi7nself. The third boy was previously deceased of scarlet fever and cas- tor oil. The youngest girl married a con- ceited, unjust attorney, and lives some where in the east. At this date looking back over the record, (all dead save two), I am of the opinion that if all these parties had been taught to clean their teeth these misfortunes would never have occurred; because caring for the teeth includes the care of the entire body. This appears at the first sight as a strange THE CARE OF THE TEETH. 8l and entirely foreign conclusion to the narra- tion of the event. Perhaps it is so. But the fact that one boy recovered from his insanity after his decayed teeth were extracted and the amalgam fillings removed from the others, and from this and other corroborative evi- dence the statement is based that the destiny of the family would have been changed if the teeth had been cared for. Does any one suppose that God loves a per- son with rotten teeth? If one wishes to know about this read Exodus and Leviticus. It is evident that decayed teeth had not become common in those days or we should have had a condemnation of the rotten toothed man as well as of the " flat nosed man" and "him that hath a blemish in his eye." Baking powders, bi-carbonate of soda bis- cuit and the sulphuric acid glucose sugar had not at that time been put upon the market. I knew a presiding elder who had one of the most offensive mouths I ever saw or smelt. He lived in Galva, Illinois, and he struggled for many years with this filthy mouth, but the rotten teeth, the germs, the bacteria were too much for him and he grew sick and sicker. For a time he sustained himself on the tea from China, but even this nerve irritant failed finally, and he "resigned his charge." If I 82 THE HUMAN TEETH. were to express my opinion I would say God sent the dear brother away because of his filthy mouth, "because our brother did not keep his body pure as a temple for the Holy Ghost, therefore the good Lord kicked him out." I have no doubt but what this will be read by those dear, pious people who will think the writer is very irreligious. Calm your minds, good souls. The writer is a humble and de- voted follower of Christ and a member of a most orthodox church. He believes that a christian should be pure in body and that unless the body is pure it does not become a temple for the Holy Ghost, and the body can- not be pure while the teeth are rotting and the filthy parasites going down the throat into the stomach and thence over the entire body. Still I cannot blame any one for ignorance. The entire civilized world is in the clutches of the "man of sin." We have only had three centuries of freedom, and the most of that has been passed in fighting superstition and the net work of Anti-Christ. Even the protestants who have access to all the books and records — yes even the Chris- tians now daily persist in breaking one of the plainest of God's laws and obeying a man's law about the Sabbath. THE CARE OF THE TEETH. 8^ God "hallowed the seventh day" and He commanded that we should rest on that day. Now we are hallowing the first day of the week. In short, Sunday is the " great day of the sun," a Pagan holiday, first ordered to be kept by the Emperor Constantine in the year of our Lord 321, and two years before the time when that Emperor embraced the Chris- tian religion. Two years after A. D. 323, the bishop of Rome, Sylvester, ordered " Sun- day," day to be observed as a holy day. So that we are now in the act of publicly dis- obeying the Great Jehovah's commands in not hallowing the seventh day, and we are pub- licly obeying the Pagan Emperor's command or the command of the papal power. How any thinking man or woman who reads the bible can fail to see this I cannot tell. But the fact is the same. We are this moment observ- ing the venerable " day of the sun" and we are disobeying God's law. No church can find a warrant for this change in the New- Testament, and only the Roman Church makes any pretext to explain it. They explain it by saying that the pope guided by the Holy Spirit changed it. But this " changing" was long ago foretold by Daniel, when that prophet, writing of the little horn of the dreadful beast writes : " And he shall speak great words 84 THE HUMAN TEETH. against Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and think to change times and laws." And this is precisely what the papal power, the man of sin has done, and those who now obey and uphold those laws and disregard God's law, are already marked with the mark of the beast. Oh ! I cannot wonder that our teeth are rotten. CHAPTER VII. NOT GENERALLY KNOWN. Many unthinking people, because of tooth- ache or neuralgia, have their teeth out and a false plate put in their mouths, laboring under the impression that they will have no teeth to be aching and that the false teeth will answer all purposes for what chewing of food they need. Never was a graver error. Never ex- isted a more suicidal act so far as health and happiness is concerned. In the first place nearly every tooth can be saved, which is not already ulcerated at the roots, and very many of those already ulcer- ated can be saved by proper treatment. (Pro- vided the ears or eyes are not already affected.) What is proper treatment? First.—Attention to the food. Second.—Attention to the cleanliness of the teeth. 86 THE HUMAN TEETH. Third.—The attention by a sensible den- tist, who knows enough and has time enough to give your teeth proper care, and either to cap the pulp or to extract the nerve, if the tooth has already ached. If a dentist understands the food question, (but one in a thousand ever docs understand it), he can advise what to eat so as to reduce inflammation and ulceration at once, while he is treating the nerve. This food question may be re-stated as follows : Potatoes, eggs, cheese, pickles, rice, pastry fried compounds, (as doughnuts, griddle cakes and fried meats, fried chickens, fried fish), and all food containing any portion of the filthy baking powders, should be avoided; also hot drinks, iced tea, ice cream and un- ripe fruit. The very best food is oatmeal mush and milk or honey or butter. The second best is the beef bone soup. The next best is good wheat bread, corn bread, beans and fruit. With all the food, a liberal supply of al- monds, walnuts, hickory nuts, filberts, pecans, castanos, hazel nuts, butter nuts, chestnuts or acorns should be eaten. I do not mean by this that one should crack the nuts with the teeth, which is a fool hardy, NOT GENERALLY KNOWN. 87 reprehensible habit, but have the nuts cracked and chew up the meats of those nuts thor- oughly, and swallow them only after they have been reduced to a pulp. This is tooth material,—consult a squirrel. Some physicians may assert that nuts are indigestible. This demands an answer. When an old or new school doctor, a big man or a little man, gives as a remedy, ar- senic, potash, strychnia, opium, copper, lead, bismuth, chloral, mercury, or quicksilver, muriatic acid, sulphuric ACID, BELLADONNA, DIGITALIS, QUININE and many other preparations which are most com- monly prescribed by the class of ignorant bigots, who are going "to absorb" and take in all other classes of physicians, then when these poisonous or destructive or deleterious remedies have been turned into the stomach, then, and then only, are nuts indigestible. Nuts in themselves are proper food for man- kind. Nuts do not disagree with other mam- malian animals, and there should be no reason why the nuts should be indigestible to the hu- man animal any more than the rodentia. Furthermore, I can certify with an honest conscience, from an experience of thirty-five years practice of medicine, that nuts are not unhealthy to the ordinary human being, un- 88 THE HUMAN TEETH. less that human being has a stomach already partially destroyed by doctor's medicines. But, after all has been accomplished that may be, it is possible that a plate may have to be made. What shall it be made of? The most common article is a plate of vul- canite or rubber (so called). If the plate was made of rubber in reality, it might be fairly tolerable. But a rubber plate is not rubber. The plates so made and worn are composed of: Mercury 24 parts. Sulphur 36 parts. Rubber 40 parts. What of it? This is the result. The sul- phur and mercury form a bi-sulphuret of mer- cury, which has a deleterious influence chemi- cally on the roof of the mouth and the gums, causing the gums to waste away and become sore. In many persons this plate of mercury and sulphur causes a persistent headache. In some it causes weakness of the bowels, diarrhoea and a bearing down feeling, which is attributed to the womb by the ignorant, and much too often that unfortunate womb is doctored, burned, cauterized and treated by the doctor who is more intent on getting the amount of his bill than he is to be NOT GENERALLY KNOWN. 89 certain he is getting the unfortunate woman well. Of course it is dreadful to so talk of the doc- tors, but it is not any slander. The great ma- jority of physicians think the human race fair game for them to make a living from, and as the ignorant dentist has inserted a rubber plate, the ignorant doctor does not know about the teeth and plates, as much as he knows or thinks he knows about the womb, and so he doctors the womb. The true explanation is possibly that the saliva is affected by the mercury and the sul- phur. The saliva already impregnated by the mercury passing into the stomach, and into the second stomach, thence into the intestines, produces a weakness of the intestines, thus affecting the great sympathetic nerve in- juriously, and this feeling of uneasiness is re- ferred to the womb. Or it may be that the mercury and sulphur has a direct effect upon the first pair of nerves, and this effect is transmitted to the spinal column and thence to the lower extremities, and all symptoms with some of these doctors and too many weak minded women are attrib- uted to the womb, simply for the reason that they do not know what else to talk about. ' However it may be, that facts are, that in 90 THE HUMAN TEETH. the great majority of cases the filthy, poisonous rubber plate is the cause of many an illness and many a feeling of dizziness and of anxiety, depression of spirits and down heartedness, that cannot be otherwise accounted for. These assertions may not receive the credit they deserve, but the proof is not far absent from any intelligent reader. Let him exam- ine the dispositions and health of those ac- quaintances who wear a rubber plate, and learn if these assertions are not borne out by the facts. The use of this bi-sulphuret of mercury plate also causes a weakness of the eyes. The den- tist is not willing to admit this, but bear in mind that the very, very large proportion of dentists are ignorant men, who have taken up the practice of dentistry for the purpose of making a living. The leading dentists are well educated, but the ordinary dentist docs not know the compo- nent parts of the plates he uses, and as to the laws of physiology he is in the most hopeless darkness. He does not know and does not want to know. He is making a living by sell- ing rubber plates, and like the old Ephesians he cries out '' great is Diana of the Ephesians." Only in this case he does not alone cry out, " great is the rubber plate," but he says that NOT GENERALLY KNOWN. 91 any one asserting anything against his way 01 making a living is guilty of all the crimes mentionable. I remember the case of a very wealthy old gentleman who had sore eyes. He had been to California and Europe. I lectured in the little city he lived in, and he consulted me. He wore a full set of rubber, upper and lowrer sets. I advised a gold plate. How the doc- tors and dentists laughed and sneered. For two years the old man held off, his eyes having bad spells and getting better alternately. The dentists of that town called me every name the}7 could imagine, the names of "quack," "cheat," "fraud," "swindler," were con- stantly in their mouths. At the expiration of two years I urged one of the dentists to learn how to make a gold plate ; he did so, and then made a full set up- per and lower for the old man spoken of. Presto? The old man's eyes were well and have never bothered him since. If any one feels very much interested to know the name of this party I will tell them so that they may verify the above facts by a correspondence with the party himself. I am aware that what passes now-a-days for "professional courtesy," does not permit a doctor to say any thing against a brother pro- 92 THE HUMAN TEETH. fessional. And I am certain that I do not wish to, but I am far enough on the inde- pendent order to assert that these avaricious tooth extractors and cheap rubber plate mak- ers are a detriment to society. And if I hear any one say that these ignorant dentists are a set of lying whelps, who live by robbing the people, and that the greater majority of den- tists are unscrupulous swindlers, I shall not go out of my road to contradict them, not much. I know an attorney who had been per- suaded to have his upper teeth out, and a rub- ber plate inserted. He had a trouble with his ears. At my advice he had a gold plate made, and his ears have never bothered him since. I can and will give this gentleman's address to any one desiring it. Is celluloid any better? No, I think not. I have had the change made from rubber to celluloid frequently enough to satisfy me that celluloid is not a good plate to have in the mouth. The reasons against celluloid are in the nature of its composition^ which is as follows : Hemp is first converted into paper by soak- ing into pulp, and passing through the various machines. It is when in the form of paper, nearly pure celluluse, and is transposed or changed into pyroxylin by a process called NOT GENERALLY KNOWN. 93 "conversion." This "conversion" taking place while the hemp-paper is immersed in a strong mixture of nitric acid and sulphuric acid a sufficient length of time, when it is re- moved and washed thoroughly. It is now an explosive compound and takes fire at 3000 F. 100 parts of this pyroxylin, 40 parts of cam- phor, 2 parts oxide of zinc and 6 tenths parts of vermillion are made into a mixture. (The camphor is softened by alcohol) and it is now put under a hydraulic pressure of 2,000 lbs. to the square inch, and the immense pressure condenses the mass while it is forced out in the shape of flat sheets. After that they are kept in a temperature of 1600 F. for two months, and then go into the hands of the dentists to make celluloid plates for ignorant people and fools. I cannot pretend to say what the pre- cise effect such a chemical compound would have on the mucous tissues of mouth. It is a mixture much after the old prescriptions of the allopaths and may well be called a " shot gun prescription." I can safely assert that al- though it may not have any effect in one day, it cannot but have a deleterious effect in one or two years when constantly exposed to the saliva at a heat of 990 F. and also the food and slops drank. The compound contains in- gredients which I know are destructive to 94 THE HUMAN TEETH. living matter and cannot help being injurious to the eyes and ears as well as the mucous coats of the stomach and intestines. Richardson's practical treatise of dentistry says of celluloid : It is more in harmony with the soft tissues of the mouth, more cohesive in texture, ap- proximates more nearly the natural gum color, contains far less vermilion pigment in its com- position, and is less objectionable by reason of its comparative cleanliness accompanying its manipulation. This is probably true ; but why have a poi- son base in your mouth at all? Do not listen to the vicious arguments of the interested or ignorant dentist. Keep yourself clear of all poison, and celluloid is a slow poi- son, and certainly degrades the mental powers. There are three good plates : gold, which I consider the best; aluminum, the next best, and silver, of which I am not prepared to speak. The baked porcelain plates also may be ad- mitted to be among the good plates, but they are not common and the art of making a good porcelain plate is dying out. The objection to porcelain is that it is easily broken, and it can- not be mended, it must be made over anew. Gold, aluminum or silver can more easily be mended or repaired. NOT GENERALLY KNOWN. 95 But rubber (or vulcanite) and celluloid plates are a certain swindle, a detriment to the head, the eyes, and the ears. It is a de- stroyer of the body, a detriment to any enjoy- ment of the mind, a cause of insanity and a personal fraud upon civilization. There are two points to which I wish to call the reader's attention. Suppose the reader has a rubber plate, can it be supposed that Queen Victoria cares for that? If you have rotten teeth, does any one person lie awake nights to coax you to fix your mouth? Who do you think cares, outside of your wife, children and mother how much you suffer? Nobody. These affairs are your own personal matters. The dentist is bound to make a living. He says that rubber does not do any harm. He says that you imagine your ailments and that rubber is the best material for plates. I say that the most inferior teeth are better than the best plate. I say that you never need lose your teeth, but if you do, then take dis- interested advice and get the very best plate, and that plate is gold. Or else I advise you to go without a plate altogether. It will be readily acknowledged that some people do not suffer so much from a poison as others. There are those who can eat opium, 96 THE HUMAN TEETH. and the drug does not apparently hurt them. Others can drink beer or whiskey and declare they receive benefit from it. There will be found apologists for every kind of a crime on the face of the earth. Avarice is a hard mas- ter. For gold and for passion the human ani- mal will descend to almost every crime. The dentist whose desire is to "make a living" from the misfortunes of his fellow being, will have no hesitation in extracting teeth and in- serting the vile rubber and mercurial "vul- canite." This may not hurt all people alike. It can- not but injure in some degree every unfortu- nate person who is forced to inhale the com- pound. Many persons will suffer without knowing the cause of their suffering ; others, although they know the cause, will allow themselves to be persuaded by avarice or in- terest to remain silent as to the effect of a plate erroneously styled "rubber." The constitution of others may be under- minded so slowly in some cases, that the cause may not be suspected. But the law of poison and the effect of poisonous agents re- mains the same. The ignorance of the den- tist, nor the ignorance of the victim, cannot change the effect of the law. The bi-sul- phuret of mercury placed in contact with a NOT GENERALLY KNOWN. 97 mucous tissue, cannot but be detrimental to living bioplasm, and the vulcanite plate con- tains this vile poisonous compound, and den- tists are inserting it into the mouths of their victims every day. Arc you a victim? If you are do not take my word for it, but try the following : leave oft'wearing your plate for a month and see how you feel. If you do not feel better, all other conditions the same, then you may judge the mercurial plate does not injure you. If you are better and wish to stay so, I repeat the advice,—get the best, and the best is gold. It is almost impossible for an invalid, espec- ially a woman, to acknowdedge that the plate she wears (vulcanite or celluloid) has any in- fluence on her health. She is told by the un- scrupulous dentist that it does not hurt her in the least. The ignorant or bigoted physician, may and will assert that he can pulverize and take all the mercury and sulphur at one dose and not hurt him or any one else. I have known of these falsely styled doctors who made this very assertion. But it is easy of proof that the wearing of a so called rubber plate does hurt. Let the wearer of it who has a.headache, a pain in the stomach, sore mouth, sore eyes, leave off all medicine and stop the wearing of the rubber, mercury and sulphur 98 THE HUMAN TEETH. plate and decide for herself or himselfwhether the absence of the plate is not beneficial to the general buoyancy of feeling and the good health generally. When one is sick they usually consult a phy- sician ; few will think of consulting an ignor- ant physician ; yet how very many of those phy- sicians, licensed by boards of health because of college diploma, know any thing of the com- ponent parts of the filthy plate of vulcanite or the celluloid abomination. How few of the dentists know of the materials they are using. They are ignorant of the stuff they insert and totally ignorant of the laws of physiology governing the mouth. And yet these people are the very ones, these very ignorant creatures are the identi- cal persons, who advise the use of this mer- curial base, and sneer at those who have made instigations. What is to be the future? Just this. The people who are intelligent have to learn for themselves. The ignorant and the wilful must suffer. So with amalgam fillings. The unfortu- nate ignorant suffer. The wise, avoid it and es- cape the penalty of insertions of mercury, sul- phur, copper, tin, zinc and cadmium in their mouths. CHAPTER VIII. FROM PARTHENIA. In 1883 a gentleman brought me a little girl two years old, whose teeth were loose, blackened and apparently broken off at the gums. Such a mouth and such teeth I had never seen. The father had just brought the child from the dentist, who had refused to pull the little ones teeth, notwithstanding the family physician had recommended that all should be pulled to relieve the child of spasms and of toothache. I advised sage tea for medicine, and a soup of bones, long boiled oatmeal or corn meal mush, fresh milk, pure air and sun light. A few days afterwards another dentist asked me, "Did*you ever hear of bone soup to make new teeth." "Why do you ask," said I. "Oh because," said this wiseacre, "Dr. So and So, (naming the family physician ioo THE HUMAN TEETH. who attended the child), said some crank had ordered bone soup for a baby, and he never heard of that before." Now mark the result. The toothache ceased, the child grew better, grew fat and in 1885 I again saw the child. On examination I found the blackened ends of the teelh as before, but they had been pushed out and the teeth had grown very per- ceptibly and evenly. The child had wholly recovered from its spasms and its teeth were solid. I am of the opinion that a crank must be something that turns, more especially since I was enabled, under the grace of God, to turn some of those people's minds, during the time I lived in that section, from their calomel, arsenic and potash doctors, and I am certain that preparations of iron and sulphuric and muriatic acids are not as much used in the physicians' prescriptions now as before my visit there ; and with the good opinion of the best, and the hatred of the worst, I can afford to be called a "crank." A lady in a neighboring village had reared a large family, and the baby boy was delicate. My advice was to avoid potatoes and use the bone soup. They did it for a little time with benefit to the child. It was too much trouble. They returned to their potatoes and sugar and FROM PARTHENIA. IOI tea : employed a regular arsenic, iron, potash and calomel physician, dosed it nicely and buried it. "The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away." I know a young animal who had a few de- cayed teeth, which were all well filled with gold. Instead of nuts, bone soup and hard bread she had jellies, candies and cakes. Four years afterwards I examined her teeth and found nearly every molar and bicuspid with decaying spots and the original fillings out or loosened around them. Comment is super- fluous. No eater of sugar which is made of glucose and sulphuric acid need to expect sound teeth. But say nuts, the purest and best of nature's sustainers, and these human brutes set up a howl that shakes their little world. "Nuts are unhealthy." Well, so they are unhealthy—for the doctors and dentists. For the last past five years I have made this a special study, and I say and repeat it again and again, harden the teeth by placing tooth material inside of the body, and the very best tooth material is found in the nuts com- mon to America,—walnuts, pecans, filberts, hazel nuts and the little sweet white oak acorns,—these are tooth hardeners. After these comes the bone soup, and a long distance behind comes oatmeal, cracked 102 THE HUMAN TEETH. wheat and corn meal. Rice, potatoes, corn starch, jellies, eggs, pickles, cheese and pork do not contain tooth material in sufficient quanity. While the baking powders, soda, coffee, tea and sugar of glucose, contain ma- terials directly antagonistic to the formation of teeth; in short, alum, baking powder and tartaric acid compounds are destructive to the teeth in the first degree, because they degrade the blood. Coffee and tea drinkers do not have chil- dren as a general rule whose teeth are easily preserved. I know there are exceptions where the children have good tooth material to eat and lime water for drink, but the rule that excessive coffee and tea drinkers do not have sound toothed children is a good one. I attribute the deleterious effect of coffee on the teeth to some action that is brought about by the effect of coffee on the liver and pancreas, destroying in a certain degree the power of those organs to send out pure bile or pure pancreatic juice, and hence the food is not properly assimilated in the intestines or by the lacteals in the intestines, and tooth ma- terial cannot or does not find its way into the blood. And if the tooth material is not in the blood sooner or later one can say good bye teeth. FROM PARTHENIA. IO3 The ignorance of the people is only equalled by the ignorance of the doctors and the stupid dullness of the dentists. As a fair sample of the manner in which ignorance is fostered, take the following from the last edition (i88i)of the American Cyclopedia, vol. xv., page 606, article teeth : "When fully formed they are subject to de- cay, buthave no inherent power of reparation." That is to say that a tooth cannot repair itself. I say that the very eminent authority is mistaken, if he is speaking of a living tooth. If he is decribing a dead tooth he is correct. We certainly do not expect a dead ani- mal to do more than to chemically change. But a living tooth, supplied with a pulp cavity and with blood vessels, nerves, etc., can repair itself and docs repair itself when it has the proper material to repair itself with. And who could expect any boiler maker to put a good patch on a boiler if he were only supplied with putty? Can a tooth be ex- pected to harden itself or to repair its dentine and its enamel with a diet of hog flesh, pota- toes, coffee, tea and sulphuric acid sugar? What is more astonishing than all other things in connection with this subject is the smooth, suave, polite, smiling hypocrites, who stand 104 THE HUMAN TEETH. in the office of teachers of the people,—doctors and dentists. The testimony of one dentist, a very Nestor in the profession, will serve as tes- timony against the dentists. J. Foster Flagg in his work "Plastics and Plastic Fillings," edition of 1881, says, page, 62: "Not one graduate in a hundred has an)- definite idea, either of the components, the proportions, or the properties, of the materials he purchases for the filling of teeth." Mark you, this testimony is from a D. D. S., author of a college text book. How then can we expect a dentist to know anything who never even attended a course of dental or med- ical lectures, or has a half dozen books in his library. Let us draw a tarred sail cloth over these monuments of ignorance and assumption. A veil is too, too thin. When they say that a tooth cannot repair it- self, they might as well say that a body can- not repair itself, that a bone of the arm or leg cannot heal itself if broken, or that a cut mus- cle cannot repair itself because it has "no in- herent power of reparation." But we know that a muscle in a living person, connected by living matter can repair itself, we know that a bone does unite by means of an "inherent power of reparation." So also a tooth belong- ing to a living structure and connected with a FROM PARTHENIA. 105 living structure by means of the pulp cavity and arteries, veins, nerves and possibly lym- phatics, can and does repair itself, provided it has anything to do that repairing with. The proof or falsity of this assertion is in the power of every reader, either on himself or some member of his acquaintance. I was called upon by a woman in Granite Falls, Minn., in 1884, who bemoaned her lonely and sad fate. She had buried three chil- dren and a husband, she had been and was yet an inveterate and constant smoker. While she carried her children she smoked, while she nursed her children she smoked, in plain Eng- lish the baby in the womb and the nursing infant were inpregnated in tobacco smoke. One child was a cripple, deaf and dumb, it lived until it was sixteen and died. They all had unsound teeth. The old lady's teeth were of peculiar black smoked color, common to smokers, her sight was so poor that she could not read, her hearing was growing worse every season. In spite of all these calamities she smoked, it "zcas such a comfort." She had smoked up her offspring, and now bewailed the facts her own folly had brought upon her. I saw a splendid specimen of manhood who prided himself on his good teeth, not one in io6 THE HUMAN TEETH. the arch was broken. I saw his children, not one of them had good teeth or had a vigorous body. The father had smoked up the vitality of the children, and the food had been of that kind that did not nourish the teeth. A short time since, I took out three roots of upper molars of an old smoker, who had paid out fabulous sums for his ears, he was hard of hearing ; all the ear doctors had never noticed that he had these festering roots left to destroy the superior maxillary nerve and effect the auditory apparatus. A lady patient from near Minnesota Falls, came to me with a sore noseand sore eyes, she had a dozen festering fangs in the upper part of her mouth; tried all the doctors without benefit. All these corrupt nests of pus were removed and the nose and eyes were well in a few weeks. But of all the errors and villainies that have ever been perpetrated on the human race there is none that can compare with the filling of teeth with quicksilver amalgam. CHAPTER IX. CHILDREN'S TEETH. I believe that the child's teeth should be cared for before they are born. To this end, I advise the mother to eat as much fruit as possible, to eat graham bread, whole wheat boiled. This can be eaten with butter, honey or milk, and forms a good basis for bones and teeth. It is asserted that wheat contains more bone forming material than any other grain. Possibly this is true. But the Scotch, who. live or who formerly lived upon oat meal, and the natives of the " small farms" from Sweden, have the best teeth in the world, and their teeth and bones are formed from the oat. The Indians, wiio as a race had fine teeth until the white man introduced whiskey and the syphilis, were fed on wild game and maize or Indian corn. io8 THE HUMAN TEETH. The slave of the South, who was fed prin- cipally on corn meal, had, and still has, ex- cellent teeth. When he became a house ser- vant and had an opportunity to live on fine flour and pastry, the teeth went to decay in the first generation. From these and other facts I am of the opinion that wheat, oats and corn contain good tooth material; and that the mother who uses this kind of diet will preserve her own teeth and furnish tooth material enough for her baby. And I am equally as certain, that the preg- nant woman whose diet is pork, coffee, pota- toes and fine flour biscuit, will lose her own teeth and produce a rotten-toothed child. Not wholly, perhaps, because of this dread- ful diet, but because of the many concomitant tooth destructive ingredients which she puts into her body with these articles, of which the most ingeniously devilish is the bi-carbonate of soda, commoly called saleratus. This is an alkali. This- alkali neutralizes the acids of the body, which are so necessary to assist in changing starch into dextrine and sugar; and I believe, from what experience I have gained since 1861, that these soda eating women have much harder pains during child- birth than those who live on plain food. This CHILDREN'S TEETH. IO9 alkali most certainly assists in destroying the pabulum for other "tissues, and prevents the formation of sound teeth in the child. Bak- ing powders of course are yet wrorse, inas- much as alum, ammonia, tartaric acid and potash are directly destructive to the vitality of the blood. Indeed the principle cause, in my estimation, of kidney disease is the preval- ence of these destructive agents used as food. As a proof of this, look at the number of pub- lic men who are victims of Bright's disease, and how few die of kidney disease who are plain livers. Hotel cooking, baker's bread and pastry, with tobacco, whiskey, with loose habits, complete the call, death comes, and the earth covers the putrid body out of sight. No mother who is a continued or an exces- sive eater of potatoes can expect to have good, sound-toothed children. I am truly sorry to say .this, but my mind has been so pained and worried by people who have eaten these terrible classes of starch food, and who, having gorged themselves and nursed children, and then expect a doctor to come and undo what their gluttony has done, that really it is a relief to write something that I hope will cause them to think. Teething, or eruption of the first teeth, or "dentition," as the dentists call it, is called a VERTICAL SECTION OF AN INCISOR. A. The pulp cavity, which in a live tooth contains blood vessels and nerves. The tooth ma- terial is in a liquid form in the arterial blood vessels. B. B. The neck of the tooth, showing where the enamel and cementum meet. The gum should always cover the cemen- tum. When it does not cover it there is said to be " wasting of the gums." C. C. The DENTINE with lines to show the direction of the dentine tubules or tubes through which the tooth material is carried to build up and harden the enamel and the cementum. All tooth material is in the pulp cavity before it can go to the enamel or cementum. CHILDREN'S TEETH. Ill D. The cementum. The roughened edges, in health, are closed upon the cementum and blood vessels from the gum penetrate the cementum and nourish the tooth after the pulp may have been destroyed. F. The foramen. If from any cause the foramen is closed, the pulp cavity becomes congested. The pulp may then die, after inflammation of the pulp or pulpitis. At such times the maxillary nerve is affected and the Eyes or Ears suffer. Deafness and sore eyes are often se- quels of congested pulps and ulcerated fangs. The decay- ing material may affect the maxillary nerves and even the entire fifth pair of nerves. It is sometimes called neural gia. Extraction of the tooth is the only remedy. Filling a tooth with amalgam is quite certain to destroy the pulp cavity. Children's teeth at the time of the eruption of the Per- manent Set, are absorbed at the roots and pushed up or down so that they drop out to inake room for the teeth underneath them. In old age the pulp becomes filled up and the teeth become harder, more solidified. For this reason, children growing demand more tooth material than adults. To deny them of tooth ma- terial, as of nuts, oatmeal, cornmeal, and soup, is to starve a portion of their bodies. This demands your immediate attention. 112 THE HUMAN TEETH. critical period of a child's life. Yet I am satis- fied that one of the most prolific causes of difficult dentition is in the food of the mother — food which is improper for the milk that is to nourish her baby. I once saw a beautiful child, almost at the gate of death, because an hour or two previously the mother had gorged herself with cherries. I have known a woman to wash until al- most exhausted, and then turn round and give the heated milk from her breast to the babe, and when that heated milk had produced a colic attribute the colic to the teeth. But this is not all, children five or six months old are seated at the table and fed with mashed potatoes and gravy. I consider such food destructive to the stomach and bowels and a detriment to the child mentally. On this point I have an authority, for Dr. White in his admirable little work "Mouth and Teeth," says in effect "starchfood to children under three years of age is absolutely poison- ous" Custards, egg and milk compound, cake composed of lard, fine flour, baking powder, egg and sugar, are all crammed down the throat of the little one, until the stomach is en- gorged and the intestines are diseased or in- flamed. Then, because the child cries, it CHILDREN'S TEETH. "3 must be " teething," and of course dosed by a doctor. When from these stuffings it has a diarrhoea, it is laid to the teeth. A little catnip tea, or a weak tea of sage, (sage, catnip, mint and in general all flowers and herbs, should be steeped, but not boiled, or even kept on the stove where there is a pos- sibility of their boiling), or even nothing at all, is preferable in these cases of difficult teething. And I say this, that in the great majority of cases, the child's teeth will come through all right if nothing is given, provided, the food is correct. Let it have a rubber rat- tle, a silver dollar, an alligator's tooth or smooth peeled limb from a hickory tree, any- thing to bite on, and the teeth will be cut without danger. But of all the food used by the mother, potatoes I consider the worse. Coffee is a bad article for the nursing mother and with sugar, it means destruction to the teeth. Pork is a villainous article of food. I think the tea in most instances conveys germs of the dread- ful diseases of the East Indies into the body of the mother and taints the child. And the Irish potato is most assuredly the worst food for mother and child, while the moth- er is nursing the child, because there is noth- ing in the potatoes except starch and water. H4 THE HUMAN TEETH. If there is not acid enough in the body to assist in transforming the starch into sugar, then the starch remains undigested. The mother's milk becomes starchy, thick, un- healthy ; the cells of the lungs of the baby fill up and it has bronchophony or croup or pneu- monia, because of an excess of starch. A mineral poison doctor gives morphine and the child dies. A very large percentage of the diseases of infancy are caused by the improper food of the mother. Potatoes do not contain material for teeth, nor material for bones, neither does corn starch, farina, rice, sago or the fine flour com- monly used. Salted and fried pork is a most horribly destructive diet for the pregnant woman, and it does not surprise me that in places where pork, potatoes, coffee, fine flour and soda have been continuously used, and where the father at the time of conception was a confirmed user of tobacco (cursed of God is the father who begets children while he is a user of this vile poison), they have buried two, three and even four children in one grave. This has been the case a few miles from Montevideo, Chippewa County, Minne- sota. Also in another place in Dakota County, Minnesota, five children and the father died children's teeth. JI5 in a short time. I visited both of these places and saw the surviving relatives, and from their lips learned of the food that assisted in pro- ducing this calamity ; and that food was prin- cipally pork and potatoes, with coffee as a drink. The child new born demands milk, and milk should be principally the diet until the child is three years of age: but the milk should be pure and good. For a child under nine months of age, milk should very rarely be given clear. It is best to dilute the milk with pure water one half, and add a lump or two of loaf sugar to each bottle of milk. The reason of this is because the digestive apparatus of a child is not matured enough to digest the solid milk as well as if it is diluted with water. The sugar should be pure loaf and not too much of it. Water from any source that is not strictly pure should be boiled, strained, cooled and settled before using for the purpose of dilution. Of course this is a trouble, and takes time ; but it is far more economical than to pay for bury- ing the child. There are times, however, that milk should not be given, for instance, when the child rattles in bronchial tubes or lungs or is croupy ; then, if the child is weaned, the milk n6 THE HUMAN TEETH. should be withheld and corn meal gruel or oat meal gruel given in the place of milk. Oat meal requires forty-five minutes to cook, and double that time is better. It should be cooked in an earthen vessel, inside of an iron kettle, with water in the iron kettle. Some such device is necessary, as oatmeal burns very easily. Corn meal gruel is made as follows : Have three quarts boiling water, (soft water is best), mix one heaping tablespoonful of sifted corn, meal in a cup of cold water, and mix thoroughly. Stir into the boiling water and keep it slowly boiling thirty-five minutes. Take off and add salt to season. There will be almost two quarts when done. If for a young child, this can be strained through a cloth to get all the lumps out and the top of the contents, but if properly made, there will be neither scum or lumps. This is an excel- lent drink for a child from one to five years of age, and there is not a rotten tooth dares to come where this food is eaten or drank. Graham bread crumbled into milk, (pro- vided milk is admissable), is an excellent food for a child; so is graham mush, oat meal mush, corn meal mush and good loaf bread, made without lard and soda. children's teeth. 117 I had supper once with a clergyman, whose wife boasted of her bread to the bishop of the diocese; and in telling how she made it, said " I put about a great spoonful of lard to three loaves of bread, this keeps it soft and short." The bishop said not a word against the hog. I was a "looker on in Venice," and being small fry did not dare to say any thing either. But when that good bishop went over the Jor- dan I was glad. And I know it is awful wicked to acknowledge it, but it is a fact that when I heard that that clergyman had lost his darling baby, I was positively rejoiced. Oh I know it is dreadful to say such things, people are shocked, and the pious, modest and sedate sisters aver that it does not do any good to antagonize society. But I know better. Fashionable society is a rotten, adulterous sham. When a person has found, through great tribulation, a truth, even though that truth has no higher aspiration or inspiration or basis—level, than the taking care of this mor- tal body, the person should not let that truth go; nay more, one should clasp that truth with both arms, lock his hands and stick the teeth into that truth, so that is impossible for the knaves of society, the world, the flesh and the devil to shake that truth out of him or her. n8 THE HUMAN TEETH. Candies and sugars are the great causes of tooth decay in children. Children do not need candy, and it is a wicked, pernicious habit to give them candies and sweets. The only sugar fit to sweeten, is the pure cane sugar, or the pure beet sugar. As so much is adulterated, I think best to keep the child away from candy and sugars altogether. If syrup is used see to it that it is pure Louisiana syrup and not a Peoria glucose. Medicines from the old school, as for in- stance calomel, antimony, dovers powders, aconite and belladonna are poisons and tooth destroyers. Iron is not a poison, but its prep- arations are in a rapid manner solvents to the teeth. Nor does a growing child need more iron than it can obtain out of a good, long boiled soup ; I say all the iron a child needs it can obtain from the food it eats. At from six to seven years of age, the six year molar comes through. Almonds, wal- nuts, hazel nuts, hickories, pecans, chestnuts, filberts or castanos are a direct benefit to the teeth at this age. I believe a child should be weaned when nine months old. If nursed longer the mouth gets out of shape. This elongation of the lips and mouth can also be produced by allowing children's TEETH. 119 the child to suck the thumb or the two fingers or a sugar teat. The sucking draws the front teeth forward and pushes the lips out so that it becomes a deformity. SUCKED HER THUMB OR NUKSKD TOO LONG. Not only so, but sucking when it should be eating is an injury to the stomach, as well as to the glands of the mouth. The habit of eating, or rather bolting hard chunks of meat and bread, is also to be depre- cated. Hard bunches of food can remain days in the stomach, and slowiy rot or de- compose. While this decomposition is going on, the child has a breath, enough to be cut. A word to the wise is sufficient; see to it that your child learns to eat and to chew properly. 120 THE HUMAN TEETH. One of the first things to teach a child is that it shall not take too large mouthfuls at a time. If the child sleeps with the mouth open, place the two front fore fingers on the lips and the thumb underneath the chin and grad- ually close it. Do this when an infant, and the habit of keeping the mouth closed will be learned by the time it is six months old and learned forever. The principal idea about children's teeth that is practical, is to have the food right. This is the main point. If the teeth are out of shape, see a dentist. If a little decayed, have a tem- porary filling. Don't pull the first teeth out, let them drop out. There are exceptions, but this is a good rule. In consulting a dentist, go to the best. Don't tell him what you want, but get his ad- vice. Then no matter whether your object is to straighten crooked growing teeth, to extract or to fill. Think the matter over and decide whether it is correct or not. Decayed molars often cause deafness or weak inflamed eyes. If this is the case extraction is the only remedy. This is seen when the child is from six to twelve years of age. Never allow an amalgam filling to go into your child's mouth, any sooner than you would have its brain destroyed. You would CHILDREN'S TEETH. 121 be doing a greater mercy to kill the child at once than to allow the dentist to destroy the base of the brain by a quick silver, zinc, tin, copper or cadmium filling. Amalgam is a brain murderer, sired by the adversary. CHAPTER X. THE SOUL. " In the beginning God made Heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form and void." Who may tell the vast ages that inter- vened between this statement and the com- mand "let there be light." The first history of the evil that commenced in Heaven, is found in Revelations 12, verse 7. Here is related the fall of the angels who kept not their first estate. "The spirits who were aforetime disobedient." Christ when speaking to the apostles says in substance that He saw this war, when he says, " I beheld Satan fall as lightning from Heaven." Concerning man, the next bit of history is found in Genesis, chapter 1, verse 26. And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness, so God created man in his image, in the image of God created he him ; male and female, created he them. THE SOUL. 123 How He made man, is stated chapter 11, verse 7 : "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into, his nostrils the breath of life." Here we have a consecutive history. God took counsel with some one beside Himself—and said let US make man in our image—He made man in His image and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and he was a breathing man—but this is not all. Beside being made and able to breathe there was something else to be done. "And man became a living soul." Now one of two facts are certain. 1. Either God made that soul, then and there. Or 2, God took that soul from some other place and put it into the body, where it be- came the spirit or soul or the eternal part of man. If, in the first place, God made the soul at that time, then did God act as a wise, loving father, in making a soul which he knew would be eventually cast into the lake which burnetii with fire and brimstone (Rev. 21, verse 8), and be tormented day and night for ever and ever? (Rev. 20, 10). And if God is omniscient, He knew it, and being all pow- erful could He have prevented it? There is 124 THE HUMAN TEETH. another very grave reason why the first view cannot be correct. Christ says, I come to save that which was lost. If that is so, and we believe it, how did he come i ,800 years ago to save my great-grandson not yet born? These are questions of such importance that the failure to answer them, or the equivocation in answering them, shakes the mind of the simple follower of Christ. In the second view, viz: that God took that soul from some other place. I acknowl- edge at once, that there is no special revela- tion or utterance in the Bible where it says expressly that God took a soul and put it into the body of Adam ; moreover, it does not say that Eve was a living soul, or had a soul. Yet we believe that from inference. Job says 33, 4. "The spirit of God hath made me and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life." Here are two "haths" and two acts, the making and the giving. And as God has placed these different actions in His book for me and for you, we, you and me, have a right to interpret that scripture without being bound by any set of men, who cannot know more than we do, if we study for ourselves. I infer therefore that God took that soul from some other place, and put the soul into the body. That man is composed of a body THE SOUL. I25 and a soul, or rather that man is the soul, dwelling in a body, provided by the union of two bodies—descendants of Adam and Eve. I further infer that that soul existed before. that the soul was lost. That when the war in heaven was, and Satan was cast out with his angels, there were millions and millions of angels followed Satan out of Heaven, and were cast down on to the earth. I believe the earth might have been chaos when these angels were cast out upon it. That Satan led them down into darkness. That these angels were reserved in chains ; and that Satan accused them before God (Rev. 12, 10), and that God "took counsel" (with Prince Michael), and had a plan of salvation, and that Prince Michael, who led the hosts of Heaven against Satan, was the Christ—" a lamb without blemish and without spot, who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world." (i Peter i, 19, 20,) and that every soul born into the world, of a woman's body, is taken from these spirits who were afore- time disobedient, (to whom Christ went and preached during the days of his death, see 1 Peter 3, 19, 20), but who in being born, that is in leaving darkness and the gates of hell, leave Satan and are born as a little child, and dy- ing young are saved by faith in Christ and go 126 THE HUMAN TEETH. to dwell with the Christ who said " suffer lit- tle children to come unto me and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of Heaven." This is an outline of my inference of the "bible plan of salvation." Whether the soul enters the body at the moment of conception or at birth may be set- tled by each individual. The arguments for the soul being in the body at the period of the intra uterine life are found in the facts of the body being alive, and in the record of John the Baptist "leaping in the womb" (Luke i, 41). The arguments that the soul enters the child at the moment of birth are numerous. The writer now submits the reasons of his inference that the soul is from another sphere and placed in this body for probation. First. If every soul born was or is a sinner from Adam or because of Adams sin, then all children dying before conversion will be lost, which is contrary to the teachings of Christ and his assertions. However, this is the exact teaching of every one who claims that we all are or were lost under Adam. Second. Christ made many statements to prove that there was a coming into the world. THE SOUL. 127 "Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of." "Ye are from beneath, I am from above." "Ye are of your father the Devil. I am from God." "Other sheep I have which are not of this fold." There is also a very remarkable passage ; "He that cometh into the fold except at the door," etc. This world is the fold, natural birth is the door of the world. Those that enter the fold by climbing (out of the prisons of the angels reserved in chains or from Hades), are thieves and robbers. Christ entered the door, He was born of a woman. The spirits which come into the word, ex- cept as being born of woman, climb up "some other way." So also Satan who en- ters in " some other way." From these passages and others, I infer that our souls, or in reality us which "were lost," are the spirits or angels which followed Satan out of Heaven. That God and the Prince Michael took counsel together and formed a plan for redeeming these lost souls. That we are imprisoned in these bodies and if we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved. We cried unto God. Satan ac- 128 THE HUMAN TEETH. cused us. We left the chains of darkness and entered into these bodies in obedience to Christ's law. We were obedient in being born ; therefore, every child is saved because it was obedient when it left Satan. That is, it was no longer obedient to Satan, but became once more obedient to Christ. Obedience is the key note to God's word. Samuel told Saul that "disobedience was equal to idolatry and witchcraft." Or in other words, we are lost angels hab- ited in this "body of death." As little chil- dren we were obedient in being born of woman. If we grow- up and continue in obe- dience to God we shall be saved with eternal life. If we are disobedient we shall be burned up, and the little we have shall be taken away. Christ came to save that which wtas lost. We were lost. Christ came, taking on the body of a man. There is no doubt in my mind but that the Prince Michael and Christ are one and the same person. See the proph- ecies of Daniel for confirmation of this view. See also a book called "War in Heaven," by Rev. James P. Simmons, of Norcross, Georgia, or address Phillips and Carew, At- lanta, Georgia. Now, supposing this soul does come from hades, and is a lost angel imprisoned in this THE SOUL. 129 body in a state of probation, and depending upon obedience to God for eternal life. What of it? What good to know it? What is the benefit to be derived from this view- ? And suppose the soul is ourself, and the body the house we live in, as the writer urges, what then? What are we here for? To gain eternal life? The best answer to these questions is to state the writer's belief. If the soul is the IT, the personality of our being, the better and purer we keep this body, then the better and purer will be the soul and the more capable of fighting the "Powers and Principalities" which are against us. Every person should judge for himself or herself. Evidently if the spirit of God made us, He put us in a body best fashioned for us. We certainly did not choose our father or our mother. It is, the writer believes, of no spec- ial benefit to be born rich or of aristocratic blood. It would not be a seemingly enviable position to be born a negro or a hottentot, yet in every case the soul has the body prepared by the laws of Almighty God, and a body that in every respect is the very best for the soul to be obedient to God during its stay on earth. It does not matter, therefore, what kind of a i3° THE HUMAN TEETH. body you have at the present, whether it is black, white, yellow, deformed or beautiful, you have a body. The body decays. All human bodies have, decayed, or, have been transformed as in the cases of Enoch, Elijah and Christ. (I am not sure that Christ had a human body.) If a man lies in the gutter drunk, can God love him ? Does God change? One of the first laws for the governing of the children of Israel con- tained a special injunction to keep clean, to have " the body washed in pure water." The apostle speaks of a pure religion when one is kept " unspotted from the world." If God wished and commanded the Israel- ites to be clean, does He not care" for the cleanliness of His children of adoption through His son, our master. If cleanliness is only a little beneath Godli- ness, can it be possible that Godliness abounds where uncleanliness is? Wherefore we ask the question. If the body is a temple of, and for the Holy Spirit, does the Holy Spirit accept a dirty body? If we are "lost angels," or "the spirits which aforetime were disobedient," placed in this THE SOUL. I31 body of death, to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling; is it reasonable to suppose we are doing our best while we suffer this body to remain filthy ? Is it possible for one who is addicted to the habit of beastly intoxication to be "filled with the Holy Spirit'?' You will answer no, and in the opinion of the writer very correctly. If then the Holy Spirit will not dwell with a filthy drunkard, can the Holy Spirit elect a daily beer guzzler as a dwelling place? If not, do you think a confirmed coffee drunkard is a temple of the Holy Spirit? Coffee is a stimulant, a poison to the in- telligence, (see Richet on Poisons of the Intellect), and gradually destroys the liver. Is a coffee drunkard a temple of the Holy Spirit? Tea is a vile drink. "Tea tasters" have a form of nervous diseases which is akin to in- sanity. A confirmed tea drinker is a monomaniac. He or she is a slave to the tea, that dreadful, agonizing, devilish, kidney rotting "cup of tea." "The cup which cheers, and does inebri- ate," every time, and destroys the urine secreting cells of the kidneys, destroys the fatty globules of the body and produces wrink- i32 THE HUMAN TEETH. les in the face, which are the mark of a per- son who sins against the rules of health. Tea ! Why tea is viler than whiskey ! Whiskey kills after a time. Tea destroys the memory, renders a person sad, melan- choly and peevish. Tea increases the flow of urine and weakens the sphincters of the blad- der. Tea drinkers very generally have de- cayed teeth, because the alkali in the tea breaks down the tooth material in the body. There are exceptions to this rule because some have vitality and tooth material enough to over come this destructive process of the tea. But children of those who drink tea exces- sively are rotten-toothed. Just as the children of excessive smokers are near sighted. And children of excessive tobacco chewers have a tendency to heart disease. Oh ! these are nat- ural laws and this cannot be argued around or over, nor put back. A natural law is a solid iron wall that cannot be blown down by the breath of a whiskey, beer, tea and coffee drunkard. Now a step farther. If the Holy Spirit desires you to have a clean body " washed in pure water," do you think that body is clean w-hile your teeth are rotten, wormy, mouldy and decayed? Can you expect the Holy Spirit to dwell in THE SOUL. 133 you, while your breath is like the wind from a festering corpse in the summer time? Can you ask God to " give us this day our daily bread," when you realize that your mouth to eat that "bread" is a mass of mag- gots and smells like a cesspool? Get out of that idea you decayed mouthed Christian people. God gives you this human body. He ex- pects you to take care of that body. Your " talent" is in that body, you can bury it in the earth, or have it alive with baccillus, par- asites and filth, while it is yet wandering along these tearful vales. But if God is un- changeable, and he once wanted His people to be clean, he cannot notu view a rotten- toothed Christian with love or regard. When we realize that the parasites of the mouth go with the food into the stomach the intestines and possibly into the blood, and over the body, then it becomes evident that a rotten tooth means a rotten body. And a rot- ten body means a rotten brain. As the soul dwells in the house, may we not reasonably suppose that a rotten body and a rotten brain has some influence over the un- fortunate soul which is imprisoned in the body ? These are matters of importance to you. 134 THE HUMAN TEETH. Have you children? They demand your par- ental care. Decide for yourself how much depends upon you for your own part; and how much on your teaching for their happi- ness in this world, for if there are any one set of factors more important in the welfare of the human race than the human teeth, they are not known to the writer. But it is possible that you believe in an "im- mortal soul." "A never dying soul." Well, my dear reader, you have no such a thing, you can only have immortality by faith in, and obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible does not teach that the soul is immortal, but on the contrary, it plainly says, "The soul that sinneth it shall die." "God only hath immortality." Neither does that soul go into an intermedi- ate space, neither can it visit this earth as a "spirit." This is strictly the doctrine of the Bible. The soul is asleep, and remains asleep until the resurrection. Our sanctuary is above. Christ is our High Priest. While we are here on this earth, we are using the talents or talent God gave us. The body is a portion of that talent and one of the most important parts of that body is in the mouth and teeth. Are you taking care of that talent? RECAPITULATION. Looking over the record of dentistry in Amer- ica, and reading the assertions of the different writers on decay of the teeth, it seems almost impossible to realize the vast difference in their views as to the primal cause of tooth decay. One prominent in the nation says "acids." Another just as pronounced, asserts "want of care." Upon this point thousands of intel- lectual people have had their teeth ruined and rotted. They brushed, used dentifrices, tooth powder, pastes and washes, and still the teeth decayed. They had the most expensive fill- ings inserted, and the teeth went to decay around the fillings and the fillings dropped out. They did not know, for no one ever told them, and it never occurred to them that tooth mate- rial comes from the inside of the tooth, viz : from the pulp cavity and the blood and prim- arily, the food. Another class, a class that professes great "science" and is headed by a Chemical "Scientific Editor," an animal that is blandly inquiring about "vital power," and is against any power but the power of this world—I say this class of pseudo scientific writers cry out that bugs and parasites are the sole causes of tooth decay. But the writer denies the entire batch of as- sertions made by these parties who have theo- 136 THE HUMAN TEETH. ries but have no facts, and asserts that tooth decay commences in the pulp cavity and in the dentine tubules, and that decay commences because of a lack of nutriment. Nowhere can this be more plainly seen than in the pregnant female. In this case the nu- triment going to supply the bony skeleton of the child, deprives the mother's teeth of their nutriment and the mother's teeth decay. More than this, the teeth themselves are re- solved or dissolved and go into the circulation of the blood and are drawn down or are sent dowrn to form the baby's skeleton. The human teeth can be hardened—under- stand plainly that what you have left of the teeth can be hardened and preserved com- mencing from the next hour. Dentists can fill a tooth and by appropriate directions to the patient can rest assured that the tooth will never decay again. That the filling can never come out, and the tooth can never again de- cay so long as the tooth material is kept in the body. Young mothers will never lose a tooth if the tooth material is in the body. Moreover, the child will have sound teeth for the tempo- rary set and sound permanent teeth if requisite attention is given to tooth material in the mother, at first, and attention to the child's demands as it advances from infancy to age. m 3 1948 WU 100 K28w 1885 50711360R NLM 05Eb3775 £ NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE *, I ... fyk* m k^u NLM052637752