ON 
 
 C|e lidiitwiis iDljicI] Jcntiil Car its 
 
 (AS DISCOVERED AMONGST THE ANCIENT INHABITANTS 
 
 OF BRITAIN, AND AMONGST EXISTING 
 
 ABORIGINAL RACES) 
 
 MAY BE SUPPOSED TO HOLD '^0 THEIR FOOD AND 
 SOCIAL CONDITION. 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHN R. jMUMMERY, F.L.S, L.D.S. 
 
 VIOE-PBESIDENT OF THE ODONTOLOGICAL SOCIKTV OF GREAT BIIITAIN. 
 
 FROM THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SOCIETY; 
 
 WITH ADDITIONAL NOTES. 
 
 Printed for ^rtbatc CTirculation, fag 
 WYMAN & SONS, 74-5, GEEAT QUEEN STREET, 
 
 LINCOLN'S-INN FIELDS, LONDON, W.C. 
 
 1870.
 
 On the Relations ivJiich Dental Caries, — as dis- 
 covered I yngst the Ancient Inhabitants of 
 Britain, ad amongst existing Aboriginal 
 Races, — may be sujJJ^osed to hold to their 
 Food and Social Condition. 
 
 Mr. Peesident and Gentlemen, — 
 
 In my concluding paper, " On the Relations of 
 the Human Teeth to those of the Lower Animals," 
 read in May 1860, I advanced the opinion, that 
 dental caries rarely if ever occurred among- the 
 ancient races who once inhabited our island. 
 
 That opinion was founded on the state of skulls 
 I had myself seen, from the Kentish barrows, 
 and was strengthened by the testimony of a 
 lamented scientific friend, then in declining health, 
 whom I had requested to examine the skulls in 
 the Hunterian Museum, and who from a cursory 
 view of these skulls had come to the same con- 
 clusion. A more extensive view of the subject, 
 however, led me afterwards to doubt the accuracy 
 of the judgment I had then formed, and I have 
 during the past nine years, availed myself of such 
 opportunities as have occurred, upon an occasional 
 holiday, to investigate the whole subject on as 
 wide a scale as practicable; feeling it to be one of 
 scientific importance, and possibly also of prac- 
 
 13
 
 4 RELATION OF DENTAL CARIES TO 
 
 ticiil value — wliilst it always furnished a most 
 interesting object of pursuit upon a journey ; and 
 I now purpose laying before you the result of 
 these more extended observations. 
 
 Topographically my investigations have been 
 bounded on the North by the line of the great 
 Roman wall of Hadrian, which extends from the 
 Solway to the Tyne, for a length of nearly seventy 
 miles (along the course of which I have explored 
 the remains of many Roman stations and towns 
 with feelings of great interest) ; on the West 
 by the borders of Wales, and on the South by a 
 line drawn from Bristol to Lymington in Hamp- 
 shire. 
 
 In these endeavours to trace the physical char- 
 acteristics, food, and habits of the various races 
 who have successively peopled England — with 
 their relations to the pathological conditions of 
 the teeth, I examined and tabulated the state of 
 the teeth in every available skull in the Hunterian 
 Museum. Feeling convinced, however, that only 
 the widest possible survey of the whole subject 
 could furnish data that should be received as 
 trustworthy evidence, I visited and examined 
 several other great collections of skulls. Among 
 these I may mention the museum of the late Mr. 
 Bateman of Lomberdale, Derbyshire, celebrated 
 for his ten years' successful diggings in British 
 barrows ; and that of the Rev. Canon Greenwell 
 of Durham, who has also afforded mc every
 
 FOOD, ETC., AMONG ABORIGINAL RACES. O 
 
 facility for examining the results of liis enterpris- 
 ing labours in the same department of archseology. 
 Professor Rolleston, also, has most kindly as- 
 sisted me in examining the fine series of skulls in 
 the Oxford University Museum, and has supplied 
 me with invaluable light on the subject of Ancient 
 English Ethnology. 
 
 I have experienced similar kindness from the 
 joint authors of the justly celebrated work 
 " Crania Britannica." From the very extensive 
 collection of Dr. Davis, of Hanley, Staffordshire, 
 I selected a large number of skulls of certain ex- 
 isting pure races for comparison, receiving from 
 him much useful information. His coadjutor. 
 Dr. Thurnam, of Devizes, has also most efficiently 
 aided me in the prosecution of my object, and I 
 was enabled to examine every skull in his posses- 
 sion — a large proportion of which were exhumed 
 by himself from the tumuli in the neighbourhood 
 of that ancient memorial of Druidical rites, — 
 Stonehenge ; Dr. Thurnam giving me a very clear 
 explanation of the relative antiquity of the suc- 
 cessive races inhabiting England. 
 
 Some differences of opinion exist among our 
 most learned ethnologists with regard to the 
 original stock of these ancient races, but it would 
 be out of place on my part, and beyond the fair 
 scope of this paper, to enter more fully into the 
 question than is absolutely necessary. The form 
 and capacity of the cranium and the facial bones 
 
 b2
 
 6 KELATION OF DENTAL CARIES TO 
 
 have received minute attention from many able 
 observers ; but the exact condition of the teeth, 
 with regard to injury or disease, deficiency or 
 redundance, has been seldom recorded, while 
 excessive abrasion of the teeth has been mistaken 
 by some observers for caries ; or (as in the case 
 of the eminent Blumenbach) for malformation. 
 Describing the front teeth of Egyptian mummies, 
 for example, he says, " The teeth are different 
 from those of any other people; the crowms of 
 the front teeth are not wedge-shaped, terminating 
 in a thin edge, but are thick, cylindrical, or ob- 
 tusely conical." This condition I have myself 
 observed in many Egyptian skulls ; recognizing 
 it, however, as undoubtedly the result of severe 
 attrition. I may here remark that in recording 
 the amount of wearing down of the teeth, I have 
 estimated the probable age of the subject by the 
 state of the cranial sutures ; that in each race I 
 have taken the maximum and minimum diameter 
 of the dental arch at the first upper molar in 
 each group, distinguishing the cases in which 
 disease occurred at the approximal surfaces of 
 the teeth, from that found on the buccal, lingual, 
 or grinding surfaces. With a view to comparison 
 with these ancient races, I have selected certain 
 existing tribes concerning whom we have accurate 
 information ; and that no available source of 
 illustration might be neglected, I have examined 
 the fine series of skulls in the respective Museums
 
 FOOD, ETC., AMONG ABORIGINAL EACllS. / 
 
 of the Royal Military Hospital, at Netley; the 
 Naval Hospital, Haslar; the British Museum; the 
 principal London Hospitals ; and the " Dread- 
 nought" (although in many instances the skulls 
 were unsuitable for my purpose). I have also seen 
 several local museums and private collections, and 
 having, on the whole, examined more than 3,000 
 skulls, I have tabulated 1,956 of them, rejecting 
 those of which the authenticity was doubtful, or 
 from which too many teeth had fallen out, to 
 enable me to form a correct judgment concerning 
 them. 
 
 The ancient British tumuli of Wiltshire are so 
 much more numerous than those in any other 
 part of England, and they have been so thoroughly 
 explored and clearly explained by Dr. Thurnam, 
 that I shall select this locality for illustrating the 
 condition of the early inhabitants of our island. 
 
 These tumuli are of two distinct forms, long 
 and round, and represent two distinct races ; al- 
 though occasionally much misapprehension has 
 been caused by a practice of the later race, who 
 often buried their dead in the older tumuli. 
 The earliest in date are the long-shaped barrows, 
 which are either made of solid earth or rubble, or 
 contain rudely- constructed chambers formed of 
 large stones. At this early period, the use of 
 metals was unknown in our island — arrow heads, 
 and other implements of flint, greenstone, and bone 
 having alone been found in these mounds. The
 
 8 EELATION OF DENTAL CARIES TO 
 
 burning of the dead was sometimes practised, but 
 if simply buried, the body was laid in a contracted 
 position on its side, with the knees drawn up. 
 
 The skulls from these barrows are of the long 
 or dolichocephahc type, and are narrower than 
 those of any modern European people. This 
 nation of the stone period had been driven back 
 into the western parts of Britain, before the in- 
 vasion of Caesar, by the advancing tribes of Belgic 
 Celts, to whom I shall presently refer. They 
 were a pastoral, and not an agricultural people ; 
 they possessed herds of the small short-horned 
 oxen (Bos longifrons), and were to a great extent 
 supported by the chase of the red-deer, roebuck, 
 and wild boar, at a time when vast districts of 
 the country were covered with forests ; the ex- 
 tensive forest of " Anderida," for example, having 
 reached from the coast of Kent and Sussex into 
 Somersetshire. Their customs appear to have 
 been extremely barbarous, and to have closely 
 resembled those of the Ashantees, Australians, 
 and New Zealanders of our own day. It was 
 with feelings of peculiar interest that I examined, 
 in Dr. Thurnam's collection, the cleft skulls and 
 half-charred bones of victims who had been sac- 
 rificed at the funeral of a chief Several examples 
 of this kind have been found on the Downs, in 
 the district around Stonehenge ; and as the 
 cylindrical bones among them are often found 
 split open, as though to obtain the marrow,
 
 FOOD, ETC., AMONG ABORIGINAL RACES. 9 
 
 tliere is but too much reason to believe tliat 
 these aborigines, Hke the people of the countries 
 I have referred to, were guilty of the revolting 
 practice of cannibalism. 
 
 On comparing the condition of the teeth in 
 these southern people, with those of apparently the 
 same race inhabiting the more northern districts, 
 a striking difference is observable. Among sixty- 
 eight Wiltshire skulls, T have found but one case 
 of decay on the approximal surface, and one on the 
 grinding surface ; only eleven cases of extreme 
 wearing down of the teeth, and those occurring 
 in persons of advancing age; and I discovered 
 not a single instance of irregular position of the 
 teeth. The distinctions of priority of race are 
 less clearly marked in the skulls from the late 
 Mr. Bateman's collection, and I have therefore 
 grouped them together with some obtained from 
 three other sources. In forty-four skulls in this 
 group, I have found five cases of approximal caries, 
 with four of the ofTindino; surfaces : the teeth 
 are much more worn down (sometimes even to 
 the margin of the enamel) than in the Wiltshire 
 skulls, yet the traces of alveolar abscess are of 
 rare occurrence. 
 
 The round barrows of Wiltshire were con- 
 structed by a brachycephalic, short, or round 
 headed people ; and it is worthy of remark, that 
 whereas the skulls from the primitive long bar- 
 rows are narrower than those of any modern
 
 10 K ELATION OF J)ENTAL CARIES TO 
 
 European people, those from the round barrows 
 are much broader than the skulls of the existing 
 population of any part of England or Wales. The 
 interments of the later or round-headed race con- 
 sist of burnt remains in the proportion of three to 
 one of the unburnt bodies ; but the objects found in 
 both classes of interment are similar, and, in addi- 
 tion to the implements of stone, &c., already alluded 
 to, the tumuli of the round-headed race often com- 
 prise implements of bronze and highly ornamental 
 pottery. 
 
 There appears good reason for assuming that 
 these round-headed people were a more powerful 
 and more civilized race, and are to be identified 
 with the agricultural population of the maritime 
 districts of Britain, said by C^sar in the fifth book 
 of his Commentaries to have exactly resembled 
 the people inhabiting Belgic Gaul, and who are 
 described by Tacitus, Strabo, and other classical 
 writers, as a people of tall stature and vigorous 
 frame. The change of diet and habits accom- 
 panying a higher degree of civilization appears 
 to have had a deteriorating efiect on their teeth ; 
 for among thirty-two skulls in Dr. Thurnam's 
 collection, I find six cases of approximal caries, 
 one of caries of the grinding surface, and two 
 cases of irregularity from contracted arch, be- 
 sides ten in which the crowns are deeply 
 abraded. There is good reason also to believe 
 that as the native wild animals became more
 
 FOOD, ETC., AMONG ABORIGINAL RACES. 11 
 
 scarce, and agriculture was extended, the people 
 of the race now under consideration were in the 
 habit of consuming more vegetable food, prob- 
 ably in the form of coarsely prepared barley or 
 oats. 
 
 A remarkable difference is observable in the 
 teeth of the skulls from the Yorkshire barrows, so 
 diligently explored by Canon Greenwell, as com- 
 pared with those of the skulls found in the South 
 of England. We noticed how few signs of dental 
 caries the skulls of the ancient Britons presented 
 in the case of the Wiltshire skulls ; but in about 
 sixty Yorkshire skulls, consisting principally of 
 the earlier or long-headed race, I found no less 
 than twenty-four exhibiting more or less disease. 
 Their teeth are also much worn, and traces ot 
 abscess are of frequent occurrence. It is some- 
 what difficult to account for this. Possibly, 
 as in the case just referred to, it may be 
 caused by a greater scarcity of nourishing 
 animal food,- and the use of a harder vegetable 
 diet in that district ; but it is a curious fact 
 that, while the proj^^ortion of disease which in 
 Roman skulls in other parts of England is in 
 the ratio of thirty-two per cent., those found in 
 Yorkshire exhibited decay in eighteen cases out 
 of twenty- three. 
 
 With the advent of the Roman conquerors a 
 great change took place in the condition of the 
 British people, and advancing civilization was
 
 12 RELATION OF DENTAL CARIES TO 
 
 accompanied by habits of luxury and effeminacy 
 wliicli greatly deteriorated their moral principles 
 and physical vigour. The Epicurean indulgence 
 of the Romans was notorious, whilst every 
 country in the empire was laid under contribu- 
 tion for its delicacies, and their gross expedients 
 for stimulating the jaded appetite do not require 
 more explicit reference. This part of the subject 
 is full of interest, but I must not be tempted to 
 enlarge upon it. It will suffice for our inquiries 
 to recognize the fact, that the Romano-Britons 
 adopted the habits of their new masters. 
 
 In the earlier days of the Republic the Romans 
 both buried and burnt their dead, but the prac- 
 tice of cremation gradually increased, as Rome 
 became more and more engaged in foreign wars, 
 until in the days of the early Empire it had 
 become almost universal. When, by the firm es- 
 tablishment of their Empire, the Romans were 
 freed from anxiety as to posthumous outrage at 
 the hands of half-subdued peoples, they began to 
 discontinue this custom, and with the preva- 
 lence of Christianity it ceased altogether. Owing 
 to this practice the Roman skulls found in this 
 country are less abundant than might have 
 been anticipated ; but I have succeeded in 
 examining altogether 143 Roman skulls, distri- 
 buted through nine collections. Of these, forty- 
 one have carious teeth, twenty-nine of which are 
 affected on their approximal surfaces. In the
 
 FOOD, ETC., AMONG ABORIGINAL RACES. 13 
 
 whole number of 143 only six occurred in which 
 the teeth were deeply worn down, but the amount 
 of caries in some individuals was very extensive. 
 In the case of a woman of about thirty years of 
 age, every molar and bicuspid tooth was diseased, 
 and a similar condition existed in six other cases. 
 Traces of extensive abscesses of the alveoli are 
 frequent, involving in one case the three lower 
 molars in one large cavity on the right side of the 
 lower jaw. I found also three cases of contracted 
 arch, and irregularity in incisors and canines ; 
 two cases of approximal caries in front teeth ; 
 and eight cases in which two or more of the third 
 molars were not erupted in middle life. In the 
 Museum at York I observed a remarkable in- 
 stance of the durability of the enamel under 
 certain conditions. The body of a Roman lady 
 had been placed in a coffin and covered with 
 newly-slackened lime, which soon hardened, and 
 the mass being now shown in a reversed position, 
 a distinct impression of the body is seen. Al- 
 though few of the bones remain, and the roots 
 of the teeth have also disappeared, the whole of 
 the crowns are preserved and in a sound state, 
 the enamel still being beautifully white. 
 
 In connection with this part of our subject, I 
 felt great curiosity to know how far it was possi- 
 ble to find any traces among these Homan 
 remains of the use of artificial teeth, or of the 
 practice of dental surgery. Many of the ingre-
 
 14 RELATION OF DENTAL CAKIES TO 
 
 dients of tlie old Roman tooth-powders, as 
 enumerated by Pliny, are found in modern 
 recipes. Burnt hartshorn, egg-shells, and 
 oyster-shells, nitre, and myrrh are commended 
 for cleansing and whitening the teeth, strengthen- 
 ing the gums, and preventing toothache ; but 
 Pliny says if pumice-stone be added, " Utilissima 
 fiat ex his dentifricia." A destructive useful- 
 ness, truly ! That the front teeth at least 
 were sometimes replaced we know through 
 the satires of Martial and Juvenal, the former poet 
 even naming ivory as a material employed.* I 
 found no traces, however, of any such handiwork 
 in the Roman skulls I examined, although several 
 of them were those of people of rank, as was evi- 
 dent from the cedar, stone, or lead coflSns which 
 
 * I was informed by Dr. Birch, of the British Museum, of 
 the existence of a curious 2:)assage in the old Roman laws of 
 the twelve tables, B.C. 450. These laws were inscribed upon 
 bronze tablets, and perished in the destruction of Rome by the 
 Goths. I was aided by a kind friend in my search, who dis- 
 covered the passage in one of the fragmentaiy quotations by 
 Cicei'o (De Legibus, ii. 24). The passage stands thus, in old 
 law Latin : — " Neve aurum addito. Quoi auro dentes vincti 
 escunt ast im cum illo sei)elire urereve se fraude esto." In 
 classsical Latin the passage would read thus : — " Neve aurum 
 addito, Cui auro dentes vincti erunt, at eum cum illo sepelire 
 m-ereve sine fraude esto." And may be thus ti-anslated : — 
 *' Neither add any gold (to a corpse), bvit if any one shall have 
 teeth bound with gold, it shall be no offence to bury or burn 
 him with it." Was this a case of tying in artificial teeth with 
 gold ware, or an anticipation of the modern advertisement of 
 " Loose teeth fastened " 1
 
 FOOD, ETC., AMONG AEOEIGINaL RACES. 15 
 
 inclosed fcheir remains ; nor did I find any arti- 
 ficial tooth, or stopping. That I might leave no 
 source of possible information unexplored, I ob- 
 tained permission, through the great courtesy of 
 the chief authorities of the British Museum, to 
 take out and examine the ashes of all the cinerary 
 urns which still contain such remains, in the fine 
 collection deposited in the "columbarium" in 
 the basement of that institution. Here I found 
 calcined bones and natural teeth, but neither gold 
 wire, nor plate, nor any other foreign material ; 
 nor did I find any trace of a stopping either 
 among the ashes or in the teeth of the unburnt 
 bodies, although I have heard of the assertion 
 that gold or other stoppings were to be found in 
 Roman teeth. Several eminent antiquaries whom 
 I have consulted have assured me they had never 
 noticed any traces of either mechanical or surgical 
 operations excepting extraction of the teeth, in 
 Roman skulls. I may, however, here observe, that 
 the molar teeth had frequently been removed by 
 operation, as the rounded form of the jaw-bone 
 presented a total contrast in these cases to those 
 in which they had been lost through absorption of 
 the sockets arising from diseased stumps.* 
 
 * In order to ascertain, if possible, whetlier any record 
 existed of the discovery of relics of the art of these ancient 
 dentists, I have thoroughly examined many extensive works 
 on Roman antiquities, including Sir W. Gell's " Pompeii,"
 
 16 RELATION OF DENTAL CARIES TO 
 
 Before I leave this part of my subject, I will 
 state the result of my investigations (with a simi- 
 
 Bosio's " Roma Sotterranea," Beckman's " History of Inven- 
 tions," and several modern works. I have also carefully 
 looked over the remains of Roman art in several collections, 
 and although I found probes and needles, strigils for scrap- 
 ing the skin in the bath, instruments for trimming and 
 cleaning the nails, tweezers and mirrors of bronze and 
 other metals, pins and combs of box-wood and bone, with 
 other appliances of the toilet in abundance ; fibulae, brace- 
 lets, finger-rings, and ear-rings in gold, and other articles of 
 adornment, I found not a trace of' an artificial tooth or its 
 setting, or any instrument that I could suppose was intended 
 for operating on the teeth. There are, however, existing 
 numerous mementoes of another class of practitioners, who 
 must have carried on an extensive business much after 
 the plan of our modern propi-ietory medicine-dealers ; and 
 it is a curious fact that diseases of the eye are the only 
 maladies refeiTcd to in these relics, which are known to 
 antiquarians as oculists' stamps. Although not directly con- 
 nected with my subject, I may observe that numerous examples 
 of them have been found, not only in Italy, but in Germany, 
 France, and Britain; they are usually cut out of some soft 
 stone, such as steatite, with the letters in intaglio, or sunken, 
 so that an impression on the cover of the medicine was made, 
 probably in some plastic material. From the testimony of 
 Pliny, and other ancient wiiters, we know that diseases of the 
 eye were very prevalent, the Greek medical authors enumerat- 
 ing more than 200 varieties. The remedies, or "collyria," as 
 they were called, were composed of a great variety of ingre- 
 dients, Avhich were often indicated upon the inscription, with 
 the name of the practitioner. Antiquaiies have sujjposed that 
 the ])revalence of ophthalmic diseases, not only in Italy, but 
 throughout the western provinces, was due to some circum- 
 stances connected with the diet or manners of the ancients. 
 I would, however, suggest that as no record exists, as far
 
 FOOD, ETC., AMONG ABOEIGINAL EACES. 17 
 
 Jar object) in reference to the skulls of ancient 
 Egyptians. Altliougli so many Egyptian mum- 
 mies are to be found in onr various museums, the 
 proportion is small in which they have been suf- 
 fficiently unrolled to admit of a thorough examina- 
 tion of the teeth. I have, however, been fortunate 
 enough to be able to examine the skulls of thirty- 
 six mummies, twelve of which exhibit signs of 
 disease on the approximal surfaces of the teeth, and 
 in two cases the upper incisors were involved. I 
 also noticed a case of irregularity in the upper jaw, 
 in which a supernvimerary tooth appeared between 
 the central incisors, and both laterals were absent. 
 In a large proportion of these cases the teeth had 
 suffered greatly from attrition — a condition which 
 confirms Blumenbach's remarks, although not his 
 deduction ; and on conversing with Mr. Bonomi, 
 the eminent Egyptian scholar, who lived many 
 years among the tombs, he assured me that he 
 had examined the teeth in at least 500 skulls, and 
 found that truncated condition of the teeth very 
 prevalent. 
 
 We learn from Herodotus, that a special class 
 of practitioners gave attention to the teeth, and 
 I have found repeated instances in which teeth 
 
 as I am aware, of the use of spectacles until tlie fifteenth 
 century, — at the very earliest, — we nay reasonably con- 
 clude that the gradual flattening of the crystalKne lens with 
 advancing age, will account for a very large proportion of 
 these maladies.
 
 18 RELATION OF DENTAL CARIES TO 
 
 had evidently been removed by an operation ; but 
 after a diligent perusal of tlie works of Belzoni, 
 Sir Gardner Wilkinson, Dr. Pettigrew, and other 
 writers, I can find no authority for the assertion 
 that the Egyptians made artificial teeth of ivory 
 or box- wood, or that they practised the art of 
 stopping, and Mr. Bonomi assures me that he 
 has never seen either an artificial tooth or a stop- 
 ping in a single instance, although he often 
 noticed cases of the absence or decay of teeth. 
 The Egyptians were in the habit of gilding the 
 eylids, lips, and nose of their mummies, and a 
 curious practice also occasionally prevailed of lay- 
 ing a thin plate of pure gold npon the tongue, 
 inscribed with hieroglyphic characters, and these 
 practices may have given rise to the mistake. An 
 Arab removed and sold three of these, which weighed 
 together 9 mithkals, which I have calculated to 
 give 6 dwts. 16 grs. as the average weight of each 
 plate. This is the only gold object I can discover 
 to have been found in the mouth of a mummy. 
 
 Although I have failed in my researches to find 
 any trace of the practice of dental surgery, ex- 
 cepting the removal of teeth, — or any example of 
 dental mechanics, among the Ancient Egyptians 
 and Romans, — it is something attained, perhaps, 
 to be able to infer that the question of their 
 alleged practice of gold-stopping is, in all proba- 
 bility, settled in the negative. Had these opera- 
 tions been often performed, it is fair to suppose
 
 FOOD, ETC., AMONG ABORIGINAL RACES. 19 
 
 that some proof would have been found among 
 the many skulls I have examined in this inquiry. 
 
 Mr. Bonomi explains the great amount of attri- 
 tion of the teeth as the result of the inevitable 
 mixture of sand with the food of the Egyptians, 
 their mode of grinding the corn being so very 
 slow and imperfect. He had himself seen in 
 Upper Egypt the natives bruising their corn and 
 reducing it .to a very coarse flour, by the use of 
 the primitive method of triturating it on a granite 
 slab with a rude pestle, a mode depicted on the 
 ancient Egyptian monuments. The food of the 
 higher classes of the Egyptians appears to have 
 been luxurious ; they had abundance of corn and 
 pulse, and a great variety of vegetables, besides 
 the flesh of the ox, antelope, ibex, and other 
 animals, with many kinds of fish. I found a 
 great difference in the condition of the teeth in 
 various groups of skulls ; probably owing to 
 different habits of the particular district. In one 
 collection of ten skulls, three cases of disease 
 occurred, and these of slight character. In 
 another collection of nine skulls, I found approxi- 
 mal caries, often very extensive, in no less than 
 eight ; the upper incisors being diseased in two 
 cases. 
 
 We shall next turn our attention to the condi- 
 tion of the teeth in Anglo-Saxon times, and shall 
 observe, on comparison of the teeth of existing 
 races with those of ancient peoples, additional
 
 20 RELATION OF DENTAL CARIES TO 
 
 proof that dental disease is not exclusively the 
 accompaniment of a high degree of civilization. 
 I shall adduce examples of the liability to dental 
 caries among nations in the rudest state of society 
 at the present day ; and hope to show that, with 
 suitable diet and attention to the general laws of 
 health, a sound condition of the teeth is not 
 necessarily incompatible with intellectual advance- 
 ment. • 
 
 On the dechne of the Roman Empire the 
 enervated Britons were unable to withstand the 
 ravages of the Picts and Scots, against whose 
 entrance into England the wall of Hadrian now 
 proved an insufficient barrier. They had devas- 
 tated every Roman town in the west, fi'om the 
 banks of the Solway to Gloucestershire, before 
 the arrival of the Saxons ; and I have myself 
 examined the charred remains of the old city of 
 Uriconium, in Shropshire, which, after sustaining 
 great injury from the Picts, was finally burnt by 
 the Saxons in the middle of the sixth century. 
 The Britons, having much Germanic blood among 
 them, very naturally called in Teutonic allies, 
 and amidst the distractions of the time, we can 
 readily understand how those, who came osten- 
 sibly to helj) the Britons, remained permanently 
 to occupy their land. Whilst the Jutes took 
 possession of the country from Kent to Hamp- 
 shire and the Isle of Wight, the Angles settled 
 in Norfolk, Suffolk, and the north-eastern dis-
 
 FOOD, ETC., AMONG ABORIGINAL EACBS. 21 
 
 tricts ; and the Saxons in Essex, Middlesex, and 
 Wessex. These nearly-aUied races were of rude 
 and barbarous habits, and too often, hke the 
 Pictish invaders, swept away the beneficial effects 
 of Roman civilization as they advanced in their 
 destructive course. Of this we have a notable 
 example in the Romano-British city of Anderida 
 (now Pevensey), the inhabitants of which were 
 all slain by the Saxons, and the city laid in ruins. 
 Reared amidst the Pagan superstitions of the 
 North, they practised cruel rites, very similar to 
 those of the earlier British tribes. This is evi- 
 dent from the many instances in which the 
 remains of those who were probably slaves or 
 captives, are found buried in the graves of the 
 chieftains during the earlier period of their settle- 
 ment in England. Their teeth, as may be 
 expected, exhibit signs of increased vigour of 
 constitution ; but I find a great difi"erence in the 
 teeth of skulls from various localities as regards 
 both attrition and caries. This circumstance is 
 probably due to such skulls belonging respec- 
 tively to the earlier barbarous and the later 
 civilized conditions of the Anglo-Saxon people, 
 although their respective characters are not 
 sufficiently distinct to make their recognition easy. 
 In many of the earlier interments during their state 
 of heathenism, the bodies were burned and the 
 ashes preserved in urns, of much ruder form than 
 those of the Romano-Britons ; but so strong was 
 
 c2
 
 22 RELATION OF DENTAL CAEIES TO 
 
 the opposition of the Christian teachers to the 
 practice of cremation, that it was abandoned 
 about 150 years after the coining of Hengist 
 and Horsa, in Kent and Angha ; although not 
 until later in Mercia. The Anglo-Saxon bodies, 
 simply buried, were laid in an extended position 
 without coffins ; thus differing both from the old 
 British tribes, who placed the bodies in a con- 
 tracted posture, and from the Romans, who 
 usually laid them in coffins. Each northern wave 
 of uncivilized people, when it reached our shores, 
 was an ao-ent of fearful destruction : but in course 
 of years a more peaceful time arrived, and there- 
 with an advance in physical comfort and mental 
 culture. Thus the subjugation of the Britons Avas 
 followed by a commingling of their race with that 
 of the Anglo-Saxons, and eventually the nation 
 advanced in civilization.* When the Saxons 
 arrived in Britain they found the fields and 
 gardens well cultivated, upon the method intro- 
 duced by the Romans ; and after they had at 
 length obtained peaceful possession of the land, 
 they so improved their farms by adapting their 
 agriculture to the moist climate, that an abund- 
 ance of wheat, barley, beans, and other crops 
 
 * I am informed by an eminent authority on these subjects, 
 that the present agricultural population of Lincoln shii-e is 
 made up of round-headed and oval-headed people, in about 
 equal proportions, who ai'e probably the descendants respec- 
 tively of the Romano- Celtic and Anglo-Saxon races.
 
 FOOD, ETC., AMONG ABOEIGINAL EACES. 23 
 
 were produced. Extensive herds of cattle and 
 slieep were kept for the supply of the table, 
 the woodlands being occupied by multitudes of 
 swine.* 
 
 A long list is enumerated of the domesticated 
 fowls in a Saxon farmyard, comprising, with few 
 exceptions, all the species with which we are now 
 famihar ; whilst the deer, wild boar, and a profu- 
 sion of feathered game supplied variety to the 
 repast of the Saxon thane. They also made 
 excellent beer, and imported wine from the con- 
 tinent, the ladies drinking mead, or other liquors 
 prepared from fermented honey. Indeed, the 
 wealthy Anglo-Saxon lived fully as well as any 
 modern Englishman. 
 
 I am indebted to Professor Rolleston for my 
 acquaintance with a very curious work, recently 
 published under the direction of the Master of 
 the Rolls, consisting of Anglo-Saxon manu- 
 scripts, most of them now pubhshed for the 
 first time, accompanied by a translation. This 
 remarkable collection of documents bears the 
 quaint old English title of " Leechdoms, Wort- 
 cunning, and Starcraft," which, rendered into 
 modern language, would signify '' physicians' pre- 
 scriptions, the knowledge of plants, and astro- 
 
 * In the Domesday Book of the Norman Conqueror we find 
 the size of a wood estimated, on the several estates, by the 
 number of hogs it is capable of maintaining on the acorns, 
 beech-mast, and roots it produces.
 
 24 DELATION OF DENTAL CABIES TO 
 
 logy." The book gives us a curious insight into 
 the diet and customs, the diseases and remedies, 
 which prevailed more than a thousand years ago 
 in this country In a monastic colloquy, or 
 exercise-book for teaching students their own 
 language and also Latin, a boy is asked to tell 
 what he has to eat. He replies worts (that is, 
 kitchen herbs), fish, cheese, butter, beans, and 
 flesh meats. He drinks ale when he can get it, 
 or, failing that, water. 
 
 In my examination of seventy-six Anglo-Saxon 
 skulls, I found caries present in twelve cases, of 
 which number it occurred in five instances on the 
 approximal surfaces. In seven cases the molars 
 had undergone severe attrition. In a large propor- 
 tion of instances the teeth are very robust, of 
 which a notable example is seen in the lower jaw 
 of the celebrated chief, Brighthelm, now in the 
 Hunterian Museum, the third lower molars being 
 remarkably developed. 
 
 In five cases I found the third molars wanting, 
 and also met with one case of irregularity, in 
 which both the upper cuspidati are lying in an 
 oblique direction on the palatal side of the dental 
 arch, causing great protrusion of the lateral 
 incisors. 
 
 The proportionate amount of caries is greatly 
 diminished when compared with that found in 
 Romano-British skulls, and we may reasonably as- 
 sume that the simpler habits of the Anglo-Saxons,
 
 FOOD, ETC., AMONG ABORIGINAL RACES. 25 
 
 together with nourishing food, tended to maintain 
 a higher standard of health, and consequently a 
 better condition of the teeth than their prede- 
 cessors enjoyed. I have, however, shown that 
 they had some experience of toothache, and will 
 now quote a few passages from the old documents 
 to which I have referred, illustrating their ideas 
 on the anatomy and pathology of the teeth, and 
 the remedies they employed. First, as to the 
 structure and diseases of the teeth. 
 
 " It is often inquired whether teeth be of bone, 
 since every bone hath marrow, and these have no 
 marrow ; and other bones, though they may be 
 broken, may by some leechcraft be healed, but the 
 tooth never, if it be broken." 
 
 " The worst humour cometh to the teeth from 
 the head ; the moisture of the head falleth upon 
 the teeth, and pierceth through them, causing 
 them to rot and swell, so that the teeth can 
 endure neither heat nor cold, and especially the 
 grinder teeth, which are fastened, each wit-h four 
 roots,* and then they leave their roots, then they 
 turn black and fall. This then is the leechcraft 
 in that case : — 
 
 Take some part of the hide of a hart and a 
 new crock, and add water, and seethe three times 
 as strongly as water boiling flesh-meat. 
 
 * I cannot say that my examination of the skulls has 
 supplied a single example of this abnormal number of roots !
 
 26 EELATION OF DENTAL CARIES TO 
 
 " Let the man hold this water in his mouth, as 
 warm as he can bear it, till it be cooled. Then 
 let him often take warmer, again casting it forth, 
 and he will soon be mended." 
 
 " The herb elecampane is good for soreness and 
 wagging of teeth." 
 
 Leechdoms for sharp pain in the teeth, and for 
 worms in the teeth, either for the upper or for 
 the nether : — 
 
 "For tooth wark, bray to dust the rind of nut- 
 tree and thorn-tree ; cut the teeth on the outside, 
 shed the dust on frequently. 
 
 " Eor the upper tooth-ache take leaves of withe 
 wind, and wring them on the nose. 
 
 " For the nether tooth ache, slit the gums with 
 the instrument till they bleed." 
 
 " For tooth wark : if a worm- eat the tooth, 
 take an old holly-leaf, hartwort, and sage. Boil 
 in water, pour it into a bowl, and yawn over it ; 
 then the worms shall fall into the bowl." 
 
 " For tooth-worms take acorn-meal and hen- 
 bane-seed and wax, of all equally much. Mis 
 them together. Make them into a wax candle, 
 and burn it ; let it reek into the mouth, put a 
 black cloth under, then shall the worms fall on it." 
 
 It is a curious fact, illustrating the persistency 
 of traditional remedies, that with some modifica- 
 tion of the mode of burning the henbane-seed, it 
 is extensively used in many districts of England 
 at the present day, in the firm belief that the
 
 FOOD, ETC., AMONG ABORIGINAL EACES. 27 
 
 lobes of the exploded seed, wliicli move sliglitly 
 on bursting with the heat, are really worms 
 expelled from the carious teeth. 
 
 In Dr. AVright's interesting work on the 
 domestic manners of the Anglo-Saxons, a 
 curious quotation is given from the laws relating 
 to personal injuries, and the payment of com- 
 pensation-money is proportioned with extra- 
 ordinary minuteness. If any man struck off 
 an ear he was to pay twelve shillings ; for a 
 nose cut through, nine shillings ; for an eye, fifty 
 shillings ; for each of the four front teeth, six 
 shillings ; for the tooth which stands next to 
 them, four shillings ; and for that which follows, 
 three shillings ; for all the others, one shilling 
 each. I am sorry that our ancestors did not 
 better appreciate the relative value of their 
 molars. 
 
 We have thus traced, with some degree of 
 certainty, the history of dental caries from the 
 times of the aborigines of Britain down to the 
 settlement of the country under Anglo-Saxon rule, 
 recognizing in each epoch, the influence of various 
 modes of living on the condition of the teeth ; 
 and it was originally my intention to follow the 
 subject throughout the centuries which have 
 elapsed since the consolidation of the Anglo- 
 Saxon kingdom, down to the present time. It 
 would have been interesting to have examined 
 the result of a fresh northern invasion by the
 
 28 RELATION OP DENTAL CARIES TO 
 
 vigorous and half-barbarian Danes, who, during 
 the period of their dynasty, settled in many parts 
 of England, as indicated by the termination of 
 the names of such towns as Derby, Whitby, 
 Grimsby, &c. 
 
 Again, the influence of the luxury introduced 
 through intercourse with the Normans during the 
 later period of the Saxon rule, culminating with 
 the Norman Conquest, and the establishment 
 of the feudal system, would be well worth in- 
 quiring into. 
 
 Whilst the serfs were reduced to the hardest 
 fare, the barons and their retainers were revel- 
 ling in a profusion of luxuries ; and most of 
 my audience are familiar with that admirable 
 illustration of the times given by Sir Walter 
 Scott, in " Ivanhoe," in the colloquy between 
 Wamba and Gurth, the swineherd. 
 
 I had hoped to recover traces of the great 
 battles of Hastings, Shrewsbury, Bosworth, 
 Naseby, and others ; but, to my great sur- 
 prise, I have not hitherto seen one satisfactorily 
 authentic skull from the scene of the first-named 
 decisive contest, and my explorations and in- 
 quiries respecting the other battle-fields have 
 thus far been- inconclusive ; although I indulge 
 the hope that I may yet attain to some accu- 
 rate data relative thereto. Unfortunately, whilst 
 explorers in past years have diligently collected 
 coins and relics of armour or weapons, skulls
 
 FOOD. ETC., AMONG ABORIGINAL RACES. 29 
 
 have been till recently little valued, and have 
 in too many instances been destroyed. Much 
 uncertainty of date attaches to the great col- 
 lections of human bones at Ripon, Rothwell, 
 and other places, and the age of the celebrated 
 Hythe skulls, so well described in the excellent 
 paper by Mr. Cartwriglit and Mr. Coleman, is 
 still a matter of debate among antiquaries. 
 
 I had also wished to ascertain, if possible, the 
 effects upon the teeth, of that great change 
 which occurred in this country, when tea, coffee, 
 and other hot beverages were to a large extent 
 substituted for ale and wine ; and I am not 
 without hope that I may yet obtain some evidence 
 on this subject. 
 
 We will now turn our attention to some of the 
 existing uncivilized races of mankind; but the 
 reasonable limits of a paper would be far exceeded 
 if I availed myself of all the accumulated, data 
 which have resulted from my protracted inquiry. 
 It will therefore suffice for our present purpose 
 to make a selection of various tribes living in 
 different climates, and subsisting on very diverse 
 articles of food. For many years past, I have 
 embraced every opportunity of obtaining the 
 direct testimony of medical and other intelligent 
 observers, who have resided amongst, or visited 
 such peoples, and have found their evidence 
 strikingly confirmed by the state of the teeth 
 in the skulls examined of each respective race ;
 
 30 EELATION OF DENTAL CARIES TO 
 
 wliere this source of information has failed, I 
 have consulted the works of trustworthy tra- 
 vellers, but there are still several groups of skulls 
 which I am not yet in a position to utilize. In 
 collecting my data, I have aimed at taking pure 
 races, omitting Lascars, West Indian negroes, and 
 other people who are living more or less under the 
 modifying influences of European civilization. A 
 source of possible error occurs in the fact that 
 skulls presented to public museums are usually 
 selected with teeth in as perfect a condition as 
 can be obtained, and having sometimes found a 
 considerable difference in the proportion of caries, 
 in various collections, I have as far as possible 
 obtained a correct average. 
 
 It will be observed that I have avoided all 
 reference to modern European and Anglo- 
 American races, but I hope we may be able 
 at some future time to obtain sufficient data to 
 enable us to arrive at an approximate conclusion, 
 and that our American brethren will lend their 
 efficient aid in carrying out so desirable an object. 
 
 In order fully to appreciate the relation of food 
 to healthy teeth, we shall do well to consider 
 the influence which the various kinds of diet exert 
 upon the human organization. These may be 
 classified as nitrogenous or tissue-forming, carbo- 
 hydrogenous or heat-producing, and mineral, (the 
 last comprising lime, soda, potass, iron, &c.). 
 
 Tissue-forming foods also produce heat in the
 
 FOOD, ETC., AMONG ABORIGINAL EACES. 31 
 
 course of their decomposition, so that, (in a 
 strictly logical sense,) this, the usual classification 
 of foods, entails a " cross division," which, how- 
 ever, is of little consequence for our present pur- 
 pose, if it is borne in mind that oil, fat, sugar, 
 gum, and starch, whether obtained from grain 
 or other sources, — (although promoting the as- 
 similation of other food, and contributing to the 
 supply of vital force), chiefly serve to maintain 
 animal heat by uniting with oxygen, in the pro- 
 cess of assimilation and waste, and that any sur- 
 plus, not so consumed, is stored up in the system 
 as fat ; but that no food, however rich in carbon 
 alone, can either build up the tissues of the body 
 or repair their waste, and that a man would 
 starve if restricted to such food exclusively. 
 
 Active exercise in cold climates, where the air 
 is dense, accelerates molecular changes in the 
 body ; and thus a large supply of heat-producing 
 food is needed to compensate for the rapid or- 
 ganic combustion. In tropical countries, on the 
 other hand, where the air is greatly rarefied, a 
 diminished supply of oxygen is inhaled, and less 
 food is demanded, whilst those who consume 
 much fat, butter, or sugar with their food, and 
 take little exercise, become obese and indolent. 
 
 The man who undergoes severe bodily exercise 
 in the open air takes more oxygen into his system, 
 and requires more food, because the waste and 
 molecular changes in the tissues of the body go on
 
 32 EELATION OF DENTAL CARIES TO 
 
 with greater rapidity, as tlie result of hard work ; 
 but it is a great mistake to suppose that severe 
 mental exertion can be maintained without a cor- 
 responding supply of similar food. Close applica- 
 tion to study induces waste of cerebral and nervous 
 tissues, and those who have hard brain-work 
 require an adequate supply of nourishing albu- 
 minous food to sustain their energies, equally with 
 those whose pursuits require mere bodily exercise. 
 
 It appears to be a matter of secondary im- 
 portance whether the nitrogenous elements of 
 food, albumen, fibrine, and caseine, are derived 
 from the animal or the vegetable kino-dom. In 
 the Arctic regions, where there is scanty vegeta- 
 tion, flesh and blubber supply the place of the 
 grain, fruits, and roots of warmer regions, and 
 health and vigour are maintained under either 
 condition. 
 
 Dr. Mantell has called fossils " Medals of 
 Creation" ; the teeth may be termed Medals of 
 the Human Organization, inasmuch as their 
 ph3^sical characters serve to record the patho- 
 logical condition of the system at the parti- 
 cular age at which each class of teeth is formed, 
 and, like medals, the only subsequent change they 
 can undergo is deterioration. Under favourable 
 circumstances, other parts of the animal frame 
 may be strengthened, but the teeth have no such 
 recuperative power, and must retain their origin- 
 ally defective condition during the period of
 
 FOOD, ETC., AMONG ABOEIGINAL RACES. 33 
 
 their existence. Taking these facts into account, 
 we may readily see that an ample supply of 
 appropriate nutritious food during childhood is 
 of greater importance in its effect on the develop- 
 ment of healthy teeth than of any other structure 
 of the body. 
 
 We now proceed to consider the extent to which 
 these views are supported by a careful examination 
 of the teeth of various races, living under the most 
 opposite conditions with regard to climate, food, 
 and habits. 
 
 The Esquimaux are stated to derive their name 
 from an old Indian word signifying " eaters of raw 
 flesh," and their favourite repasts fully justify the 
 title. They are a littoral people, of the Mongolian 
 type, inhabiting the coasts of North America from 
 Labrador to Greenland and Behring's Straits, and 
 are generally nomadic in their habits, which will 
 account for the great variety in their food and 
 certain contrasts in the condition of their teeth. 
 
 With few exceptions, the vast region they 
 inhabit lies far beyond the extremest limits of 
 forest growth, and it includes the most desolate 
 and inhospitable part of the globe. Although the 
 land supplies comparatively little, the sea yields 
 ample provision for all their wants, and they never 
 live far from its shores. 
 
 In the summer they hunt the musk-ox and 
 reindeer, preserving the flesh under masses of 
 rock and ice for future use ; they have also an
 
 34 EELATION OF DENTAL CARIES TO 
 
 abundance of wild swans, geese, ducks, and sea- 
 fowl at that season, witli vast quantities of salmon 
 and otlier fish, in some localities. 
 
 The sea-bear and whale, the walrus and seal, 
 supply the largest proportion of their food. Whilst 
 cutting ofi" the blubber from a whale, they devour 
 large slices of the raw flesh, eating as they work, 
 and the whale's skin is esteemed an especial 
 delicacy ; but they prefer seal to all other flesh, 
 drinking bowlfuls of the warm blood. From ten 
 to fourteen pounds of raw meat per diem is con- 
 sidered a reasonable allowance for each person. 
 
 So short is the summer, that only a few 
 stunted shrubs exist, and the fruit is so scanty 
 that vegetable food cannot be reckoned as an 
 element of any importance, excepting that in 
 times of extreme scarcity the Esquimaux sustain 
 life with the lichen which forms the food of the 
 the reindeer. 
 
 It is worthy of remark that Arctic explorers 
 from a more civilized region, whatever disgust 
 they may at first have experienced at Esquimaux 
 food, have in many cases felt compelled by the 
 low temperature to resort to a highly oleaginous 
 diet, and have learned eventually to relish raw seal's 
 flesh and blubber as thoroughly as the natives. 
 
 The people are short in stature, and of robust 
 powerful frame. The jaws are singularly well- 
 developed, and the teeth perfectly regular in 
 position. The zygomatic arch is wide, and the
 
 FOOD, ETC., AMONG ABORIGINAL EACES. 35 
 
 tuberosity of the upper maxilla much prolonged. 
 The teeth are often deeply worn on the grinding 
 surfaces, frequently to the pulp-cavity, which 
 gradually becomes obliterated by the formation of 
 secondary dentine ; and in one instance only 
 among the sixty-nine skulls I examined, had 
 alveolar abscess ensued. I found one case of 
 caries of the first right lower molar on the grind- 
 ing surface ; in another case, the first and second 
 left lower molar had been removed : these were 
 the only traces of disease. 
 
 In some skulls the first molars were affected 
 much more than the other teeth, being worn 
 obliquely towards the lingual side in the upper 
 jaw, and towards the buccal side in the lower. 
 As this condition of the teeth is observable in 
 other races who live on hard food, it is probably 
 attributable in this case to the mastication of 
 tough sinewy raw flesh. In other Esquimaux 
 skulls the teeth are worn down on an uniform 
 plane, the front teeth being truncated like those 
 of the Egyptians, a condition which is probably 
 owing to the mixture of sand with the food in 
 some localities. 
 
 The Indians of the north-western coast of 
 America differ considerably from the Esquimaux, 
 many of these tribes being known as " flat- 
 heads," from their strange practice of distorting 
 the cranial bones in early life by pressure-boards. 
 Living in a lower latitude, they have not the same 
 
 D
 
 36 RELATION OF DENTAL CARIES TO 
 
 constant need of oily food, and they subsist 
 chiefly on salmon, which are by far the most com- 
 mon of all fish in the rivers of the North Pacific. 
 These fish ascend the rivers in such countless 
 multitudes as to impede navigation, and during 
 the prevalence of a south-west wind are driven 
 ashore by thousands. The Indians split and dry 
 the salmon on the sandy shore in a very rude and 
 careless manner ; and so large a quantity of sand 
 adheres to this food, that their teeth are destruc- 
 tively and quite evenly worn down. They oc- 
 casionally hunt the moose-deer and other animals, 
 drying their flesh also for winter use. Among 
 fifty-sis skulls I found but two cases of caries : 
 in one instance two teeth were affected, in the 
 other one tooth only. The teeth are frequently 
 worn down to the margin of the enamel, but the 
 dentinal pulp is invariably calcified ; and among 
 the fifty-six skulls examined I found the sur- 
 prising number of thirty-two in which the enamel 
 was entirely removed from the grinding surfaces 
 of the molars and premolars, and from the cut- 
 ting edges of the cuspidati and incisors. 
 
 The various tribes of North American Indians, 
 who roam over the prairies and forests of the 
 interior, are chiefly sustained by the chase of the 
 musk-ox, moose, bison, and other large game ; 
 but no animal food comes amiss to them, and 
 they eat the flesh of the beaver, fox, otter, and 
 other fur-bearing animals, whose skins they sell
 
 FOOD, ETC., AMONG AP-ORTGINAL RACES. 37 
 
 to tlie agents of the Hudson's Bay Company. 
 With the occasional addition of a few roots, their 
 diet is exclusively of an animal nature, but they 
 are often subject to great privation. The maxil- 
 lary arch is finely proportioned, and among 
 twenty-three skulls of these tribes I found one 
 case of two and one of six carious teeth. A 
 striking contrast is seen between the teeth of 
 the fish-eating Indians and of the Indians of the 
 interior, with respect to wearing down, only two 
 cases being noticed of extreme attrition on the 
 grinding surface, most probably explained by the 
 absence of sandy admixture with their food. 
 
 Turning our attention to the warmer regions of 
 South America, we find a people living between 
 the twentieth and fortieth parallel of latitude, in 
 the Argentine Republic, known as Guachos. 
 They are a mixed race of Indian and Spanish 
 blood, who are employed at the ranches or great 
 cattle-stations, and spend the greater part of 
 their time on horseback, in hunting the half- wild 
 cattle which roam over the wide grassy plains 
 extending from the Atlantic coast to the foot of 
 the Andes. I obtained some important informa- 
 tion relative to their food and health from a 
 gentleman who owns a large estate in Entre-Rios. 
 These people live entirely on roast beef, with a 
 little salt, scarcely ever tasting farinaceous or 
 other vegetable food, and their sole beverage is 
 mate or Paraguay tea, taken without sugar. My
 
 38 RELATION OF DENTAL CARIES TO 
 
 informant assured me, that although his people 
 always sought from him remedies for their 
 various ailments, he never heard of more than 
 one case of toothache. Indians of the same 
 race inhabit the towns ; but their habits are 
 widely different, and their diet is a very mixed 
 one, as they indulge greatly in Italian, French, 
 and Spanish cookery, being fond of acid stews 
 and made dishes. They eat immoderately of con- 
 fectionery, and drink their mate with much sugar, 
 indulo-ino^ also in inferior wines. Caries in the 
 teeth prevails extensively among these people, in 
 striking contrast with the inhabitants of the open 
 country. I may add that these statements are 
 confirmed by the observation of a naval medical 
 officer who was stationed some time in the Hio 
 de la Plata. 
 
 I have been unable to see a sufficient number 
 of skulls from this district to furnish reliable 
 evidence. 
 
 We have another example of a race subsisting 
 entirely on animal food, in the Arabs who in- 
 habit the Nubian Desert, a district which consists 
 principally of hills varying from 1,000 to 1,800 ft. 
 high, and is destitute of all vegetable products 
 suitable for human food. Their camels subsist on 
 the thorny shrubs growing among the rocks ; and 
 the milk and flesh of these animals (with salt) 
 constitute their sole ordinary food. 
 
 On their occasional journeys into Egypt to sell
 
 FOOD, ETC., AMONG ABORIGINAL EACES. 39 
 
 camels, tliey usually bring home a small quantity 
 of wheat, which is never ground, but boiled into a 
 kind of frumenty and eaten as a luxury ; although 
 it must not be reckoned as an ordinary element 
 in their diet. 
 
 I learn from Mr. Bonomi, who had abundant 
 opportunity of studying the habits of these people, 
 that they have most beautifully regular and sound 
 teeth, and that they constantly clean them before 
 and after every meal — an infrequent practice, 
 among the ruder tribes of mankind. 
 
 These statements are confirmed by Dr. Murie, 
 who saAV much of these people during his 
 journey along the course of the Nile, and par- 
 ticularly observed the sound state of their teeth ; 
 and the same may be said of the few skulls I 
 have seen. I am informed also, by my friend 
 Mr. Lockhart, — who established the hospitals 
 at Shanghai and Pekin, and had ample oppor- 
 tunities for observing the peculiar diseases of 
 the various tribes in the Chinese empire, — that 
 he had particularly noticed the fine teeth of the 
 nomadic people from Chinese Tartary. These 
 tribes roam over the extensive grassy plains, 
 rearing large herds of oxen and sheep, and are a 
 tall, fine race of men ; they have no vegetable 
 food, but live entirely on mutton. They bring 
 their cattle to Pekin for sale, and on these occa- 
 sions have often sought medical aid for oph- 
 thalmic and other complaints, but never for
 
 40 RELATION OF DENTAL CARIES TO 
 
 affections of the teeth ; which, Mr. Lockhart 
 observed, were always sound, and regular in 
 position. 
 
 Although, through the influence of Christianity 
 and civilization, the practice of cannibalism is 
 happily becoming gradually discontinued, I must 
 not omit to recognize its extensive prevalence 
 only a few years since, comprising the period 
 during which the skulls I examined were col- 
 lected. This revolting custom exists under very 
 different conditions. 
 
 The Fans of Western Africa devour the flesh 
 of enemies slain in battle ; but it is also said, 
 on good authority, that the inhabitants of one 
 village are in the habit of purchasing the bodies of 
 those who have died naturally in a neighbouring 
 one — making payments in ivory. 
 
 The miserable inhabitants of Tierra del Fuego 
 are addicted to the barbarous practice of canni- 
 balism when at war ; and it is afiirmed that when 
 pressed in winter by hunger, they kill and devour 
 their aged women — alleging that they are useless, 
 as they cannot catch fish or game. 
 
 The Australian, under similar circumstances 
 of extreme destitution, is known to club and 
 eat his child, wife, or neighbour, but the Fejee 
 Islanders and New Zealanders have no such ex- 
 cuse, — living, as they do, in countries which always 
 supply sufiicient food to prevent a famine — but 
 are murderous cannibals, who prefer human flesh
 
 FOOD, ETC., AMONG ABORIGINAL KAGES. 4l 
 
 to every otlier kind of food. The habits of the 
 Fejees are minutely described, so recently as 1858, 
 by a resident Englishman, Mr. Williams, from 
 whose work I have derived my information. 
 
 Referring to the remaining cannibal tribes, 
 he says that they slaughter all shipwrecked 
 foreigners, or inhabitants of neighbouring islands, 
 who are cast on their inhospitable shores ; and so 
 far from regarding it as a crime, they boast on 
 going to war, that they shall eat dead men's flesh 
 to repletion. 
 
 Those who die a natural death are never eaten ; 
 but cannibalism is an element thoroughly inter- 
 woven with their social institutions. 
 
 If the people of a village give the most trivial 
 offence to a powerful chief, he orders them to be 
 attacked and killed. The bodies are brought 
 home in triumph, and borne from the boats by 
 women ; or they invite their neighbours to 
 friendly barter, when they are surrounded, killed, 
 and baked in ovens. They are a tall, robust race 
 of men ; and among thirty-eight skulls I found 
 only two instances of dental caries, one case in 
 which two teeth were affected, and one of extensive 
 disease. 
 
 The New Zealanders have too much resembled 
 these people in their habits. They are a vigorous, 
 energetic race, tall and muscular, and superior in 
 intelKgence to the people of Eastern Polynesia. 
 
 The love of war is with them the spring of
 
 42 EELATION OF DENTAL CAEIES TO 
 
 every action and tlieir great object ia life, and 
 until recently brought under the humanizing 
 influence of Christian civilization, their country 
 was the very centre of deliberate murder and 
 cannibalism ; for not only their enemies, but un- 
 fortunate shipwrecked sailors, were almost invari- 
 ably killed and eaten. 
 
 The country produces quantities of nutritive 
 roots, those of the ferns alone supplying a sure 
 resource in times of scarcity, and the shores 
 abound in shell-fish, which are extensively used ; 
 an aliment which probably accounts for the 
 unusual proportion of cases in which the teeth 
 have suffered from severe attrition. 
 
 The maxillary arch is remarkably expanded, and 
 the teeth are beautifully regular; among sixty- 
 seven skulls, I met with but two cases of caries, 
 one in which two teeth, and in the other four, 
 were affected. 
 
 On reviewing this catalogue of flesh-eating 
 tribes, including true cannibals, and observing the 
 generally sound condition of their teeth, it must 
 be confessed, that an impression anything but 
 agreeable is left on the mind ; and it is with a feel- 
 ing of relief that we can turn our attention to 
 races, with whom the flesh of animals forms but 
 one element in a more varied diet, or to other 
 tribes who even abstain from it altogether, and 
 yet enjoy, in many instances, a healthy condition 
 of the teeth.
 
 FOOD, ETC., AMONG ABOIUGINAL RACES. 43 
 
 The inhabitants of Eastern Polynesia appear to 
 great advantage with regard to their habits, when 
 compared w4th the cannibals of theWestern islands. 
 They are usually above the middle stature, with 
 well-formed limbs and remarkably graceful figure, 
 although inferior to the New Zealanders and Fee- 
 jeeans in muscular development and physical 
 power. The scenery of these islands is of the 
 most magnificent character, and the vegetation so 
 richly beautiful that voyagers have often styled 
 the country a paradise. The people are very neat 
 and cleanly in their habits, and spend much time 
 in bathing ; but their fine climate yields such an 
 abundance of vegetable products, that they are 
 somewhat prone to idleness, although capable, 
 when necessary, of great exertion. 
 
 The bread-fruit, plantain, cocoa-nut, with many 
 other fruits, and sugarcane, grow in profusion ; 
 but their usual food consists of plantains, beaten 
 into a paste with cocoa-nut milk, and is called 
 Popoe ; they also consume a considerable quantity 
 of fish. 
 
 The sea yields a good supply of turtle, and the 
 people rear swine and poultry ; but these articles 
 of food are either reserved for the use of the 
 chiefs or employed in trading with foreign ships. 
 Among seventy-nine skulls I found eight cases of 
 caries, a large proportion extensive ; and absorp- - 
 tion of the alveolar margins was frequent. In nine 
 cases two or more of the third molars were absent.
 
 4-4 RELATION OF DENTAL CARIES TO 
 
 The people of the Sandwich Islands, lying to 
 the north of the equator, in the corresponding lati- 
 tude to that of the Society Islands on the south 
 of the line, are less favoured with respect to the 
 natural products of their country. The soil is 
 poor, and there are few wild animals or fish. The 
 cocoa-nut, bread-fruit, and plantain are tolerably 
 abundant ; and oranges, lemons, grapes, and 
 water-melons have been introduced ; also goats, 
 swine, cattle, and poultry; but the staple food 
 of the people is the root of an arum, called 
 taro, which is roasted and eaten as a substitute 
 for bread ; — to this we may add the sweet potato, 
 sugarcane, and yam. 
 
 The inhabitants of these islands are of less 
 graceful form and feature than those of the 
 Southern Pacific Islands. They are of moderate 
 stature ; the face is broad and flat, the features are 
 coarse, the muscles flabby, and there is a great 
 disposition to obesity. Many Americans, and 
 other civilized people, have settled in these islands, 
 and the native race appears to be rapidly diminish- 
 ing in numbers. 
 
 In twenty-one skulls four cases of caries occurred, 
 two of which were very extensive, and I observed 
 one case of that pitted state of the enamel of the 
 incisors, canines, and first molars, usually known 
 as honeycombed teeth. 
 
 The natives of that extended tract of country, 
 Chili, lying to the west of the Andes, are a singu-
 
 FOOD, ETC., AMONG ABOEIGINAL EACES. 45 
 
 larly industrious, active race. Like the Guaclios, 
 on the Atlantic side of the great mountain-range, 
 they are a mixed race of Indian and Spanish extrac- 
 tion, but their diet and occupations are very dis- 
 similar. Their country is traversed in many 
 districts by mountainous spurs, and consequently 
 a great diversity of soil and climate exists : the 
 seasons are as regular as in Europe, and the air 
 is most exhilarating. 
 
 The principal native fruit is the kernel of the 
 Araucarian pine ; but the Chilian is a diligent 
 agriculturist, and large quantities of excellent 
 maize and wheat are produced, also peas, beans, 
 and other leguminous seeds. Figs, grapes, and 
 peaches are abundant. A striking contrast is 
 observable between the Guachos of the Atlantic 
 and these Guasos of the Pacific flanks of the 
 Andes. The former live exclusively on animal 
 food, the latter almost as constantly on vegetable 
 diet. The former are a pastoral, the latter an 
 agricultural people; and their usual food is wheaten 
 or maize bread, beans, and fruit. 
 
 The grass is very luxuriant, and in some dis- 
 tricts cattle are reared, their flesh being dried in 
 strips, chiefly for exportation, under the name of 
 "charqui," or jerked beef. These particulars I 
 obtained from a gentleman long resident in the 
 country, who also remarked the singularly fine 
 teeth of these people. 
 
 The extensive mines of GhiK yield gold, silver,
 
 4G RELATION OP DENTAL CARIES TO 
 
 copper, lead, and tin, and the whole produce is 
 brought to the surface by the personal labour of 
 the miners, who ascend shafts of 400 or 500 ft., 
 carrying 200 lb. weight of ore on the back, with 
 no other aid than that afforded by notched trunks 
 of trees placed in zigzag. 
 
 These miners are healthy, cheerful, and active, 
 yet their food consists chiefly of boiled beans, 
 with the addition of bread and figs, and once a 
 week a little jerked beef. Among nineteen skulls, 
 I found two cases of slight disease in the teeth, 
 and one in which five teeth were affected. The 
 dental arch is finely expanded, and I observed no 
 other signs of disease. It has often been remarked 
 with respect to these Indian half-breeds, both of 
 the flesh- eating Guachos and the grain-eating 
 Chilians, that their jaws serve the purpose of an 
 additional hand, as they often pull up the saddle- 
 girths of a restive half-wild horse by the aid of 
 their powerful teeth, or by the same means hold 
 the lasso, by which the wild cattle are secured. 
 
 The Australian races exhibit in the configura- 
 tion of the skull the lowest type of the human 
 family. They are for the most part improvident 
 savages, and spend their lives in alternate feast- 
 ing and famine. 
 
 During some portions of the year they hunt the 
 kangaroo, opossum, and emu. Wild turkeys, 
 geese, and swans often abound, and there are 
 many varieties of fish on the coast. But they lay
 
 FOOD, ETC., AMONG ABORIGINAL RACES. 47 
 
 up no store, and wlien the game lies close in the 
 winter rains, they resort to any food that can be 
 obtained ; as lizards, grubs, ants, frogs, snakes, or 
 the roots of water-plants ; and even, as already 
 noticed, when driven by hunger, sometimes sacri- 
 fice the weaker members of the community to 
 their cannibal appetite. The cranium in these 
 people is very narrow, the forehead low and re- 
 ceding, the teeth, especially the lower canines, 
 project in a striking manner. The jawbones are 
 powerfully developed, and large in proportion to 
 the cranium. The molar teeth are often of extra- 
 ordinary size, especially the third lower molar, in 
 one instance measuring five-eighths of an inch in 
 width, and the enamel has a curiously porcelain- 
 like appearance. In a considerable proportion of 
 cases these organs are destructively worn, even 
 beyond the limits of the enamel, exposing the 
 pulp-cavity, and causing alveolar abscess. Ir- 
 regularity of the teeth is not infrequent, and 
 caries on the approximate surfaces often occurs ; 
 indeed, I have met with every form of dental 
 disease with which we are familiar among the 
 English race. 
 
 Among 132 Australian skulls I found caries 
 present in twenty-seven cases, often very 
 extensive. 
 
 The physical character and habits of the Tas- 
 manian race (now, with the exception of one 
 aged woman, extinct) so closely resembled the
 
 48 EELATTON OV DENTAL CARTES TO 
 
 Australian that I need only observe that in all 
 points relating to disease, irregularity, or de- 
 structive wearing- of the teeth, the defects of the 
 Australian are exaggerated in the Tasmanian. In 
 thirty-three skulls caries was found in nine cases, 
 and in the majority a considerable number of the 
 teeth were affected. 
 
 The wide-spread African races next demand our 
 attention, and I have collected a great amount of 
 evidence with regard to the state of their teeth, 
 havins" tabulated their condition in 439 cases. So 
 remarkable a contrast is presented by the teeth of 
 the multitudinous African tribes, that I have taken 
 some pains to trace the cause of this difference in 
 their condition, and to distinguish the several 
 races. The Ashantees, Dahomeans, and some 
 neighbouring tribes on the West Coast are 
 athletic, robust, and warhke ; they frequently 
 overwhelm the provinces inhabited by feebler 
 tribes, killing great numbers of the people and 
 carrying off the remainder as slaves. 
 
 Although they practise the diabolical custom of 
 immolating their prisoners, as a part of the 
 funeral rites of their chiefs, they do not appear to 
 be guilty of cannibalism. 
 
 The country abounds with the elephant, 
 rhinoceros, and hippopotamus, also with vast herds 
 of many species of antelope, and the natives ex- 
 tensively cultivate the banana and other fruits, 
 sugarcane, yam, beans, peas, and maize. They
 
 FOOD, ETC., AMONG ABORTOTNAL RACER. 49 
 
 have tlierefore no lack of nourisliiDg food, and 
 their bodily frame is powerfully developed. The 
 maxillary arch is very expanded in form, and 
 the frequency of supplemental teeth is a curiously 
 interesting fact, as illustrated by the following 
 instances : — 
 
 Case 1. — A fourth well-formed molar is present 
 on each side of the upper jaw, the teeth occupy- 
 ing an exactly regular position in the dental arch. 
 
 Case 2. — A fourth upper molar is present on 
 each side in the upper jaw, the supplemental 
 teeth inclining slightly toward the buccal side of 
 the arch. 
 
 Case 3. — A perfect fourth molar is present on 
 the left side only. 
 
 Case 4. — A mal-formed fourth molar on each 
 side. 
 
 Case 5. — A similar example. 
 
 Case 6. — Also resembling Case 4. 
 
 Case 7. — A well-formed right upper supple- 
 mentary first bicuspid, occupying a natural posi- 
 tion in the arch. ^ 
 
 Case 8. — A supplementary left upper bicuspid 
 in regular position. 
 
 Case 9. — A third upper right bicuspid on 
 palatal side of maxillary arch. Caries has re- 
 sulted in this case on the approximal surface of 
 the additional tooth, also on the second bicuspid. 
 
 Case 10. — A supplementary upper canine on 
 each side, in regular position.
 
 50 EELATION OF DENTAL CARIES TO 
 
 Case 11. — A duplicate well-formed right upper 
 central incisor. 
 
 It is a remarkable circumstance that I met with 
 no example of a supplementary tooth in the lower 
 jaw; but the third lower molar is frequently 
 larger than the second. 
 
 I had the opportunity of examining the skulls 
 of three of those noted female warriors, the 
 Dahomean Amazons. The skulls were by no 
 means remarkable for powerful development of 
 the facial bones. In two cases the teeth were 
 perfectly sound ; in the third case the first and 
 second molars on both sides of the upper jaw 
 were slightly carious on their approximal surfaces. 
 Among 92 sculls of these tribes, I found 11 cases 
 of caries, — usually of very moderate extent. 
 
 In the Zulu Caffres, dAvelling on the southern 
 coast of Africa, we find a similar example of a 
 race who have long been the terror of the neigh- 
 bouring tribes ; and I have obtained a very full 
 account of these people from a gentleman long 
 resident at Durban, in Natal. The Zulus are very 
 superior in intelligence to all the other South 
 Africans, and are physically a powerful and 
 athletic race. They have pursued their devas- 
 tating course, conquering tribe after tribe, and 
 killing or carrying away the inhabitants as slaves, 
 until a district 400 miles in length, which a 
 century ago was thickly populated, liecame as 
 desolate and barren as in its orighial state of
 
 I'oop, KTC, AMt».\n ,\i;oi;](;iN.vi; IJACHS. 51 
 
 wild bush, and all traces of luunan habitation 
 were obliterated; the miserable remnant of the 
 conquered people wandering without huts, cattle, 
 or corn, and sustaining -a precarious existence 
 upon roots and shell-fish. 
 
 The country of the Caftrcs is well stocked with 
 the elephant, hippopotamus, antelope, rhinoceros, 
 and wild boar. The manatee frequents the 
 coast, water-fowl and fish abound, and they have 
 extensive herds of cattle ; but their ordinary food 
 consists of curdled milk, millet, beans, and maize. 
 The flesh of animals is a much-prized luxury, 
 only consumed on special occasions, as in the 
 training of their warriors, who, for a long time 
 before an intended foray, are supported almost 
 entirely on flesh-meat, to give them strength and 
 courage ; a system of diet which is also recog- 
 nized among civihzed nations as that most con- 
 ducive to the development of muscular power. 
 In forty-nine skulls I find six instances of caries, 
 five of which were of very limited extent. The 
 maxillary arch is of singularly fine proportions, 
 and the teeth are usually very regular and perfect. 
 It is worthy of notice that they make a constant 
 practice of diligently cleaning the teeth after 
 eating. 
 
 If we turn our attention to the more feeble 
 African tribes from which the slave-markets are 
 supplied, we see great deterioration in the state 
 of the teeth ; and, by a curious coincidence, the
 
 52 i;i;l\tiiin iif dkntai, caimks to 
 
 proportion oF siil)jects tabulated in wliom caries 
 occurSj is precisely the same on the eastern and 
 western coasts, although the disease is far more 
 severe in dpjjreG among the western tribes. 
 Tliese races inhabit marshy districts along the 
 course of the great rivers, and are subject to 
 fevers, rheumatism, and neuralgic affections ; and 
 the general tone of health is often very low. 
 
 The 25lantain appears to be their staple food in 
 times of peace ; but from their frequent state of 
 disquiet, owing to the marauding practices of the 
 slave-hunting tribes, they often neglect cultiva- 
 tion, and are also deprived of their cattle. Under 
 these circumstances they sustain life upon wild 
 berries and roots ; but this kind of vegetable food 
 is found to be so insufficient to satisfy the de- 
 mands of the s^^stem, that they have a special word, 
 " Gonamba," signifying an irresistible craving for 
 fiesh-meat. If they are not so fortunate as to 
 secure any of the larger animals, as the elephant, 
 deer, antelope, &c., they are compelled to resort 
 to t\\Q flesh of the monkey, rat, snake, or frog ; 
 1)ut that of the dog appears to be preferred to 
 every other kind. 
 
 I have examined 269 skulls of Africans who 
 have been brought down as slaves to the various 
 points of the coast, and have died of disease or 
 exhaustion : they vary so much, in form, capa- 
 city, and thickness, that they evidently belong- 
 to manv various tribes of the interior. ' The
 
 FOOD, hl'IV,, AAIONT^ AHORirilVAl, K'ACKS. 5o 
 
 enamel of the teetli is sometimes very coarse 
 in texture; in others vcrj thin, fragile, or 
 opaque, and the configuration of tlie dental arch 
 often presents a striking contrast to its develop- 
 ment among the n)ore powerful Ashantees and 
 Caifres. Of seventy-four cases of caries I found 
 thirty-eight in which it occurred on the approxi- 
 mal surfaces, a condition evidently due to in- 
 sufficient expansion of the maxillary arch, as a 
 consequence of defective nutrition. In no less 
 than eighteen cases the whole of the molars and 
 bicuspides were carious, and (which is of rare 
 occurrence among savage tribes) the incisors and 
 canines were often involved. A widely-extended 
 custom prevails of knocking out the right central 
 incisor in early manhood, and I have found many 
 instances in which, judging from the form of the 
 jawbone, the molar teeth had been extracted, and 
 not lost by a natural process of absorption. 
 
 The third molar in these tribes also is fre- 
 quently larger than the second, and I observed 
 among them five cases of irregularity from con- 
 tracted arch, and many examples of misshapen 
 molars and bicuspides, also four cases of super- 
 numerary teeth, usually of distorted form. 
 
 The Bushmen are a people of singularly dwarf- 
 ish stature, distinct from the true negroes, and 
 live in the deserts of Southern Africa from choice, 
 possessing an intense love of liberty. They are the 
 only real nomads in the country, never cultivating 
 
 E 2
 
 54 i;i;i,\TI<t\ cl' I'LlNTAIi ('Al;iKS 'in 
 
 tlie soil or rearing any domestic animal but the 
 (log, and are so intimately acquainted with the 
 habits of the various species of antelope and 
 other game, that they follow them in their mi- 
 grations from place to place, deriving their chief 
 sub>sistence from their flesh. 
 
 Notwithstanding the great skill of the Bushmen 
 in the use of the bow and arrow, by which they 
 secure feathered and other game, they are often 
 reduced to the verge of famine by the protracted 
 drought to which this country is liable, driving 
 the wild animals away from their accustomed 
 haunts. 
 
 Under these circumstances they eat locusts, 
 caterpillars, and a species of frog, said by Dr. 
 Livingstone to be nearly as large as a chicken. 
 When these resources fail, they collect wild beans 
 and edible roots, the most valuable of which are 
 those of the succulent Mesembryanthemum famil3\ 
 Giro wing in these arid deserts, they are furnished 
 with thick, fleshy leaves, having pores capable of 
 absorbing moisture with avidity, retaining it in 
 the driest atmosphere ; and the large tuberous 
 root often supplies by its succulent properties the 
 lack of water. 
 
 As we might reasonably expect, the frequent 
 privation of food produces its usual effect on the 
 condition of the teeth. Among the twenty-nine 
 skulls I have examined I have found six cases of 
 caries, the majority being of an extensive charac-
 
 F00ii, ETC., AMONG ABUEIGLXAL liACES. 55 
 
 ter, and in nine cases tlie teetli liarl nndergonc 
 destructive attrition. 
 
 The Hindoos residing in the southern parts of 
 India are extensive consumers of rice, and it is 
 usually spoken of as their staff of life. It is, 
 however, a mistake to suppose that vigorous 
 health and strength can be maintained exclusively 
 on diet so poor in flesh-forming material, and I 
 have perused with much interest the elaborate 
 official rejiorts upon the diet of the inhabitants of 
 every part of India. From these sources of infor- 
 mation I learn that, although rice is the staple 
 article of food throughout wide districts, there are 
 no absolute vegetarians in India. Those who, like 
 the strict Brahmins, abstain from flesh, consume 
 much milk, curds, ghee (or clarified butter), 
 fruits, and vegetables. The castes who are 
 less strict in their dietary, on religious grounds, 
 are accustomed to eat mutton, poultry, pork, 
 goats' flesh, venison, or other nutritious 
 meats, when their circumstances enable them 
 so to do. The poorer classes supplement the 
 deficient nutritive value of the rice, by millet 
 and various kinds of dhall, under which designa- 
 tion are included lentils, vetches, beans, and other 
 leguminous seeds. This kind of diet is, however, 
 often indigestible if taken in large quantities ; and 
 when they can obtain fish they eat it, although 
 very frequently in a semi-putrid condition. In 
 various parts of the country they consume the
 
 56 l.'RLATinX OF PRXTAL CARIES TO 
 
 ticsh of the liorse, the porcupine, squirrel, iguana, 
 and frog ; also marine, fresh- water, or land snails. 
 Indeed, no l)east, bird, reptile, fish, or other 
 animal appears to be unacceptable among some 
 sections of the community. 
 
 The Mussulmen eat every kind of meat but 
 pork, and the wealthier among them often prefer 
 wheat (which is brought from the northern 
 districts) to rice. A great variety of fruits, as 
 the plantain, date, cocoa-nut, mango, &c,, enter 
 into their diet, and they use quantities of fresh 
 veo-etables, with hot condiments in their curries. 
 
 All classes manifest an extraordinary fondness 
 for sweetmeats, which are supplied in endless 
 variety and profusion. They are made of flour, 
 sugar, and spice, and are boiled in ghee or syrup, 
 old men eating them with as much avidity as 
 children. An Indian officer informed me that a 
 native cavalry regiment, known as Skinner's Irre- 
 gular Horse, were never so well pleased with any 
 reward for their services as with a supply of 
 sweetmeats. After a victory, a regimental order 
 was usually issued, directing that two pounds of 
 sweetmeats should be served out to each man, 
 the whole of which was consumed before the 
 morning. 
 
 Among seventy-one skulls examined from 
 Southern India, I found ten cases of caries ; in 
 three of which six teeth were involved. 
 
 If Ave turn our attention to the lofty temperate
 
 FOOD, ETC., AMONG ABORIGINAL lUCES. 57 
 
 regions of ]S[ortliern Iiiclici, coiiiprisiug* tlie upper 
 water-slied of the Ganges and Bramah-pootra, 
 we find much greater simplicity in the diet of 
 the inhabitants than is prevalent among those of 
 the southern provinces. 
 
 An officer of the Royal Engineers, who was 
 stationed foi' a considerable time in the district, 
 informs me that their diet consists of unleavened 
 bread made from wheat-flour, ground in hand- 
 mills and not sifted, (this is made into small cakes, 
 called chupatties, baked, and eaten with salt and 
 butter,) which, with the addition of milk and 
 cheese, and occasionally of boiled lentils, consti- 
 tute their entire aliment. 
 
 The district is inhabited by three distinct races 
 of people. The Kumalies were originally Thi- 
 betians, a pure Mongolian race ; the Rohillas are 
 of Aflfghan origin, and the Goojery Hindoos are of 
 the same stock as tliose of the plains. 
 
 In many localities these three tribes exist side 
 by side, preserving their distinctions of race ; in 
 others every variety of modification results from 
 intermarriage ; but in each case their diet is tlic 
 same throughout the district. 
 
 My informant, who was stationed at a distance 
 from any medical man, was frequently apphed to 
 by the natives for medicine to relieve their various 
 disorders, but he never saw or heard of a single 
 instance of toothache ; and he |)articularly noticed 
 that their teeth ^vere very regular, of good colour,
 
 68 EELATION OF DENTAL CARIES TU 
 
 only. moderately worn down, and were frequently 
 retained to an advanced aoe. 
 
 The Government official reports, referring to 
 the people uf this district, designate them a 
 finely-developed race, muscular, strong, and 
 active, far superior to the rice-eating inhabi- 
 tants of the plains, and making much better 
 soldiers. 
 
 AYe have here evidence that different races 
 living under the same conditions are all alike 
 influenced by them ; and if we take the teeth as a 
 test of the difference between the northern and 
 southern people, we shall also find these state- 
 ments corroborated. 
 
 In 152 skulls from ISTorthern India I found but 
 nine cases of caries, and in no instance were more 
 than two teeth affected, presenting a very favour- 
 able contrast to those from Southern India, in 
 which the numerical proportion of cases is more 
 than double, and the extent of disease far greater 
 in many instances. 
 
 I received from Count Wollowicz, a military 
 surgeon in the British service, an interesting illus- 
 tration of the effect of a similar diet upon the 
 people in Abyssinia, living between Zoola and 
 Senafe. They live princij^ally upon the highly 
 nitrogenized seeds of Holcus Sorghum, a kind of 
 millet, and the Count assures me that he had 
 ascertained that their teeth were I'emarkably 
 sound.
 
 FOUi>, ETC., AMONG ABOEIGINAI; KACKS. 59 
 
 The Malays inhabiting the Indian Archipelago 
 enjoy a luxurious climate, amidst tropical vege- 
 tation. Bananas, cocoa-nuts, and other fruits 
 abound ; birds and fish are also plentiful. 
 
 The people are, on the whole, a vigorous, 
 healthy race, much occupied in maritime affairs, 
 and too frequently addicted to piracy. 
 
 It is a common practice with these people to file 
 the labial surfaces of the upper incisors and 
 cuspidati deeply into the dentine, in some cases 
 exposing the pulp-cavity, and giving rise to 
 alveolar abscess. Among twenty-four skulls I 
 found two cases in which two teeth were affected, 
 and only one of extensive caries, which shows 
 some improvement as compared with the teeth of 
 the inhabitants of Southern India. 
 
 The Chinese live to a great extent under con- 
 ditions as artificial as those of the inhabitants of 
 European cities. I have received much valuable 
 information from my friend Mr. Lockhart, who, 
 when superintending the hospital at Pekin, had 
 every opportunity of acquainting himself with 
 the habits of the Chinese in every grade of society, 
 that their diet is often very complex and unwhole- 
 some. Rice is their staple food ; but in some 
 districts they partially substitute millet. 
 
 They also eat quantities of salted cabbage in 
 a semi-putrid condition, and prepare other ve- 
 getables in a similar manner, afterwards frying 
 them in oil. Tliose avIio can afford it eat pork,
 
 60 RELATION OF DENTAL CARIES 'J'O 
 
 duckSj fowls, tislij and other animal food, wliicli is 
 cut into pieces and stewed in oil or soup. 
 
 All classes take their food quite hot, they never 
 drink cold water, but they drink tea at all their 
 meals, and also at intervals throughout the day. 
 The beverage is invariably presented to visitors, 
 and is sipped at first nearly boihng hot, the 
 remainder being allowed to become lukewarm. 
 
 Their teeth are very faulty, and the incisors are 
 often carious in early life ; they are very neglect- 
 fid in cleanliness with regard to these organs. 
 The Manchoo Tartars, the inhabitants of Pekin, 
 suffer equally with those of southern China. 
 
 Mr. Lockhart has also supplied me with another 
 example of the influence of differing physical con- 
 ditions on the general health and that of the 
 teeth in people of the same race. 
 
 The Chinese who inhabit the hilly country 
 comprised in the Shangtung promontory, are em- 
 ployed by the Government to fetch the tribute of 
 rice from the southern provinces. Tlie grain is 
 conveyed in canal-boats, and the voyage, which is 
 very protracted, involves much physical exertion. 
 These people are tall, their stature being rarely 
 under six feet ; they are very healthy, and possess 
 singularly fine teetli. The opposite promontory 
 of Corea is a marshy unhealthy district ; the people 
 are a small, stunted, and shrivelled race, far in- 
 ferior to the Chinese generally ; they have miser- 
 able health, and suffer much from carious teeth.
 
 TOO]), ETCI., AMONG ABOETGINAL IIACES. 61 
 
 I have examined twenty-seven Chinese skulls, in 
 ten of which caries was present, and in eight of 
 the number the disease was very extensive. 
 
 That a predisposition to caries in the teeth, 
 like other diseases, is largely dependent on 
 general hygienic conditions, is, I consider, sup- 
 ported by evidence derived from a people much 
 easier of access to us than the examples 
 already quoted. In the picturesque region of 
 the Italian Alps, extending from the eastern 
 side of the "Yal Sesia " to the " Val Brega- 
 glia," a custom prevails strangely at variance 
 with our English standard of propriety, and 
 the practice has extended in some cases into the 
 Canton Valais, in Switzerland. After the body 
 of a deceased relative has been buried for a period 
 varying from one to three years, the head is dis- 
 interred, and, having been duly cleansed by persons 
 who cultivate that speciality, the name of the 
 deceased is inscribed on the frontal bone, and the 
 skull is placed in the mortuary chapel of the vil- 
 lage, — the cranium of a priest being distinguished 
 by the black sacerdotal cap of the late owner. 
 
 Our feelings may revolt from the practice, as 
 a breach of good taste and reverential regard for 
 the memory of those whom we liave loved and 
 lost, nevertheless it affords an unusual facility for 
 examinino- a laro-e number of skulls in excellent 
 condition ; but the task is attended with some 
 difficulty, and possible risk to the too curi-
 
 62 EELATION OF DENTAL CARIES 'J'O 
 
 ous explorer, as these ossuaries are provided 
 with an iron grating, which is usually locked, 
 rendering it a difficult matter to obtain accurate 
 statistics. I have, however, availed myself of 
 the opportunity afforded by four autumn holi- 
 days to examine the skulls, when I could gain 
 admission without attracting notice ; and I was 
 struck with the singularly perfect condition of the 
 teeth in nearly every skull, only a small per- 
 centage exhibiting any sign of caries ; I found the 
 dental arch well expanded, and the teeth regular, 
 meeting but one solitary case of contracted arch, 
 which was a thoroughly V-shaped upper jaw. The 
 people inhabiting these elevated villages live in 
 the full sunlight throughout the year, and breathe 
 a pure air ; they are vigorous, singularly erect in 
 carriage, and accustomed, especially the young- 
 women, to carry large quantities of grass and 
 other heavy weights on the head. Their diet 
 principally consists of milk and its products, with 
 polenta, a porridge made of Indian corn-meal — 
 not the starch known as corn-flour in England, 
 but the entire meal, comprising its due proportion ' 
 of gluten. In the season they also have an abun- 
 dance of grapes, figs, and chestnuts. Among these 
 people, we rarely see a case of goitre, no cretinism, 
 and, as I have remarked, little dental disease. 
 
 A sad contrast is presented by the inhabitants 
 of two great valleys lying respectively north and 
 south of the dividing chain of the Alps, and who
 
 I"OOI>, KTl.'.j AMoNCi .\i;(»i;i(!l.\AL l;\('ES. ('>:] 
 
 are of the same races as those inhabitino' tlie 
 mountam slopes. 
 
 In the Val d' Aosta, and in the Rhone valley, the 
 people are mainly fed on a similar diet to that of 
 the mountaineers, with the addition of some less 
 simple food, and a greater consumption of wine ; 
 but their deep valleys are overshadowed on the 
 southern side by high moutains, which almost 
 entirely shut out the sun in winter-time ; these 
 valleys have always been noted for the presence 
 of goitre and cretinism, and precisely in these 
 localities, I found disease of the teeth a common 
 complaint. 
 
 Thus we see that general hygienic conditions 
 are often as much concerned in the growth of 
 healthy teeth as food, and that people living in 
 marshy districts present a great contrast to the 
 dwellers in healthy regions ; a view of the case 
 which is confirmed by medical friends with regard 
 to several races. 
 
 My paper has been discursive, but facts may 
 perhaps be thus better fixed in the memory, and 
 a few deductions may, I think, be fairly drawn 
 from the data. An ample supply of food con- 
 taining a due proportion of nitrogenous or tissue- 
 forming material is absolutely necessary to the 
 development of healthy teeth. The source from 
 which the proteine is derived is of compsTatively 
 little consequence, whether it be raw or cooked 
 flesh, fowl, or fish ; milk or its products"; the
 
 64- J^KLATION (M' MENTAL CAIMES Td 
 
 cereals, fruits, or roots, provided only that a 
 sufficient quantity of the element is present ; but 
 some modification of the diet is required to suit 
 various climates. 
 
 It has usually been supposed that an exclusiveh" 
 vegetable diet is the l^est adapted to hot countries, 
 l)nt we find that the flesh -abjuring Brahmins are 
 more readily affected l3y the Indian heat than 
 Englishmen ; they are obese, apathetic, and have 
 less power of resisting disease ; they are not 
 long lived, and supply few good soldiers to the 
 army ; whilst the lower caste of Hindoos largely 
 supplement their amylaceous food with legu- 
 minous seeds, milk, and fish, which are sub- 
 servient to the formation and reparation of 
 animal tissues. 
 
 Nevertheless, the people of Northern India, 
 living on wheat and milk alone, are liable, in 
 t\ie proportion of only one-third the frequency to 
 dental caries, which is also slight in degree as 
 compared with the inhabitants of the plains. 
 
 In very cold countries, on the other hand, in 
 addition to flesh-forming food, there is a con- 
 stantly urgent demand for oils and fats, that the 
 temperature of the body may he maintained at 
 the normal standard when the thermometer in- 
 dicates a degree of cold far below zero ; and the 
 excessive amount of oleaginous food which, could 
 it be taken in a hot chmate, would be stored in 
 the svstem as fat, only serves to keep up the
 
 J'OOD, iriV.. AMO\(^ AI'.OK'KIINAL l.'ACKS. ()5 
 
 nccessaril}^ energetic vital combustion. We have 
 here a remarkable illustration of the power Avhicli 
 the human organization possesses of adapting 
 itself to various climates to an extent Avhich is 
 not equalled liy any of the lower animals, and 
 is paralleled only by the dog; to a lesser ex- 
 tent also by the tiger and puma amongst the 
 mammalia. 
 
 A remarkable difference is observable in regard 
 to the different modes of attrition of the teeth. 
 Those tribes who, from careless preparation of 
 their food, allow sand to mix with it, usually 
 grind down all their teeth equally, as in the 
 notable examples of the Egyptians, and tlie 
 salmon-eating North American Indians.* 
 
 AYhen the aliment consists of hard seeds, 
 roots, or tough animal food, the greatest amount 
 
 * A singular contrast is presented by the teeth of the Ele- 
 pliant, with respect to the severe attrition which is absolutely 
 necessary to their efficienc}'. I was infoi'med by a gentleman 
 in the Indian Civil Service that he found the Elephants 
 belonging to his department were losing flesh and strength. 
 On examining the cause, he found that the soft food with which 
 they were supplied in captivity was altogether insufficient for 
 keeping the three tissues of the teeth — enamel, dentine, and 
 cementum — in the nneven degree of attrition necessary for 
 masticating. Consequently the grinding sui-faces of these 
 organs were quite flat and smooth. 
 
 Recollecting that in a wild state these animals live on 
 bi'anches and leaves of trees, and on roots which they dig out 
 of the sandy soil, the keepers were ordered to mix sand with 
 their food, and the animals soon recovered their health.
 
 G6 IM'M/ATIOX OK DEjNTAIi CAIJIMS TO 
 
 of degradation occurs on tlie surface of tlie first 
 molars — towards the lingual side in the upper, 
 and the 1)uccal in the lower jaw. 
 
 Moreover, with those who live on liighly 
 nitrogenized food, the exposed ]3uli) becomes 
 gradually and entirely calcified, and the tooth is 
 often Avorn down to the neck without giving rise 
 to abscess ; but when there is defective nourish- 
 ment — inflammation, abscess, and extensive alve- 
 olar absorption are constantly observable. 
 
 We have seen that dental caries is not exclu- 
 sively the attendant of civilization, for it often 
 prevails among the feebler savage tribes, whilst 
 it is rare among their more powerful neighbours, 
 by whom their cattle are stolen, and their 
 strongest men killed or carried away into 
 slavery ; general deterioration of the race ensues, 
 and the dental tissues are involved in the results 
 of defective nutrition. 
 
 I hope we shall obtain some light from these 
 investigations upon that oft-repeated and im- 
 portant inquiry. Why are diseases of the teeth 
 more common now in civilized life then they 
 formerly were ? 
 
 There are, doubtless, multitudes of feeble 
 lives which, in a ruder state of society, would 
 have succumbed in infancy ; but which, by 
 careful nurture, and the advance of medical skill, 
 are saved, and the general health is fairly 
 estabHshed. AVe must, however, remember that
 
 FOOD, ETC., AMONG ABORIGINAL RAPES. 0)7 
 
 the teeth are not hke the other tissues, but, as 
 already observed, when once formed have so 
 slight reparative power that they remain per- 
 sistently defective ; whilst the influence of 
 cumulative hereditary tendency too often operates 
 on succeeding generations. 
 
 It is to be feared that a large amount of dental 
 disease is originated by overtaxing the active 
 brain of children. 
 
 According to the best authorities, the most 
 rapid increase in the growth of the brain takes 
 place before seven years of age ; and it must be 
 remembered that the crowns of all the permanent 
 teeth, with the exception of the third molars, are in 
 the course of development simultaneously with this 
 great advance in the size of the brain. May we 
 not therefore reasonably suppose, that through the 
 diminished vitality consequent upon this diversion 
 of the formative energy from the teeth, through 
 the morbid influence of premature mental exer- 
 tion, these organs necessarily become degenerated ; 
 and that this circumstance constitutes one great 
 difference between the teeth of the intellectual 
 and those of the uncultivated families of man- 
 kind? 
 
 It has often been remarked of men who have 
 become eminent for their learning, that they were 
 idle scholars in boyhood ; and a celebrated divine 
 has recorded that his father never praised him up 
 to \hQ age of twelve, for anything but his ability to 
 
 F
 
 68 EELATION OF DENTAL CARIES TO 
 
 roll great stones, which his elder and more studious 
 brothers could scarcely move ; yet, when once he 
 applied himself to study, he made such rapid pro- 
 gress that he became the only member of the 
 family who achieved eminence. I wish it were 
 possible to obtain the statistics of the condition of 
 the teeth in these cases, where the brain was not 
 set to hard work until the teeth had obtained 
 their due development. My attention has long 
 been directed to this point, and I feel satisfied 
 that I have traced the existence of disease in the 
 teeth to the prejudicial influence of premature 
 intellectual effort in many instances, where it 
 could not be accounted for, either on the ground 
 of hereditary tendency, unsuitable diet, or in- 
 sufficient exercise. 
 
 It is a recognized fact among ethnologists, that 
 civilization tends to diminish the size of the facial 
 bones. The savage eats his tough or hard food 
 either raw or imperfectly cooked, and an excessive 
 development of the maxillae and of the zygomatic 
 arch is thereby induced ; whereas in civilized hfe 
 the well-cooked food demands less effort in masti- 
 cation, and the facial bones become less expanded 
 and robust. 
 
 As the relative size of the teeth does not appear 
 to be in a corresponding degree affected, we may 
 thus in many instances account for the want of 
 proportion between the teeth and their sockets, 
 which is not only the cause of irregularity, but
 
 FOOD, ETC., AMONG ABORIGINAL RACES. G9 
 
 also a fruitful source of caries on tlie approximal 
 surfaces of the teeth. 
 
 A reference to the teeth of savage races will 
 show that irregularity is as rare, as destructive 
 attrition is common, among them; whilst these 
 conditions are precisely reversed with respect to 
 the teeth of highly-civilized peoples. 
 
 These considerations point out the urgent 
 necessity for diligent brushing of teeth, which 
 is involved in civilized life, to compensate for 
 the healthy friction exercised upon the teeth and 
 gums by less perfectly cooked food. 
 
 I have noticed a striking fact with regard to 
 an uneven structure of the enamel with which we 
 are only too familiar, — its irregular deposition on 
 the incisors, cuspidati, and first molai'S, popularly 
 known as honeycombed teeth; whilst upon the 
 premolars and the second and third true molars 
 this tissue is perfectly developed. 
 
 Among the many hundreds of skulls, ancient 
 and modern, which I have examined, I have met 
 with but two examples of this defect ; one of 
 these occurred in the skull of a West-Indian 
 negro, the other in that of a Sandwich Islander, 
 and as the former was living under English, the 
 latter probably under American influences, I think 
 we cannot be mistaken in attributing these excep- 
 tional cases to some cause connected with the 
 practices of civilized people, which probably may 
 be the administration of mercury in childhood. 
 
 f2
 
 70 RELATION OF DENTAL CARIES TO 
 
 I believe that the present generation of adults are, 
 in many cases, suffering from the injury inflicted 
 on their teeth by mercurial medicines administered 
 in infancy ; and this, not so much by medical 
 authority as by the treatment of injudicious 
 mothers, who thirty years ago considered calomel 
 and grey powder very innocent domestic remedies ; 
 and I am persuaded that I have in many instances 
 traced the connection between such medicines and 
 the dental defect. 
 
 Happily for the rising generation these ma- 
 ternal experiments are now generally made with 
 doses as harmless as they are minute. 
 
 My chief object in this paper has been the 
 investigation of the predisposing causes of dental 
 caries, but I ought not to omit recognizing the 
 influence of febrile and dyspeptic afiections in 
 developing disease in previously sound teeth. 
 
 The adulteration of bread with alum* is also, I 
 strongly suspect, a source of much evil, not only 
 in regard to the inferior nutritive quality of the 
 flour which is thus made into saleable bread, but 
 
 * On visiting an extensive alum maniifactoiy some years 
 since, I inquired if they disposed of the product to the dyers 
 as a mordant ; but to my astonishment was told, that the whole 
 of the alum was sold to the millers, excepting a small quantity 
 to bakers, and I saw a lai'ge number of sacks full of alum, 
 granulated to the size of pearl-bai-ley, the more readily to be 
 mixed with wheat before grinding. It is, moreover, to l>e 
 feared that the baker sometimes ignores this, and follows out 
 liis own traditional practice by adding a second dose of alum.
 
 FOOD, ETC., AMONG ABORIGINAL RACES. 71 
 
 to the direct influence of this bi-sulphate upon the 
 enameh The introduction of this practice is of 
 no recent date, as I unexpectedly met with a 
 complaint respecting it, in one of Smollett's 
 works published exactly a century ago. 
 
 The greatly increased consumption of sweet- 
 meats may probably be also regarded as exercising 
 a prejudicial influence upon the teeth. 
 
 The use of acid gargles and medicines, without 
 due precaution, the employment of gritty tooth 
 powders, and the effect, upon some teeth, of the 
 habitual use of camphor, must all be taken into 
 account. 
 
 On some of these points I am coUecting data, 
 and have experiments in progress, which may 
 possibly throw light upon the subject. 
 
 We may learn from the circumstance that the 
 rice-eating people of India are obliged to com- 
 pensate for the poorness of the grain in flesh- 
 forming elements, by adding pulse or some animal 
 food to their diet, that the practice of feeding 
 children with starch, whether it be derived from 
 wheat, arrowroot, maize, or other sources, is, on 
 the principle " ex nihilo nihil fit," incapable of 
 resulting in the formation of healthy tissues, 
 unless abundance of milk or other food rich in 
 nitrogenous principles be added to the diet ; and 
 that the entire meal of wheat, deprived of only 
 the coarsest bran, is a far more nutritious food, — 
 although the amylaceous preparations referred to.
 
 72 RELATION OF DENTAL CARIES TO 
 
 if combined witli milk, are doubtless invaluable 
 in cases of feeble digestion. 
 
 It may be a fanciful association of ideas, but I 
 cannot help endeavouring to explain tliat remark- 
 able tendency to decay in the teeth of children 
 born of English parents in India, — whatever care 
 is bestowed on their diet and regimen, — by the 
 fact that the more vigorous tribes, who were the 
 ancestors of the present people of Britain, were of 
 northern origin. 
 
 It is just possible that the mysterious law which 
 impels the swallow, the nightingale, and other 
 birds inhabiting the north of Africa, to rear their 
 young in our cooler climate, whilst the flocks of 
 wild fowl who spend their winter on our shores 
 and meres, are summoned by the same irresistible 
 instinct to hatch their broods in a region ap- 
 proaching the Arctic circle, — may help us to an 
 explanation, and that the tonic influence of our 
 climate is necessary to the development of healthy 
 tissues in children of British race. 
 
 I should not have felt justified in devoting my 
 attention to this subject on so extensive a scale, 
 as a mere question of scientific interest, but I 
 entertain the hope that we may derive some 
 practical results from the investigation. Mean- 
 while, it would be very desirable that accurate 
 statistics should be obtained, in various parts 
 of the United Kingdom, which would enable 
 us to see the relative tendency to disease of
 
 FOOD, ETC., AMONG ABOEIGINAL RACES. 73 
 
 tlie teeth among rural and urban populations, 
 and what relations it may bear to their intellectual 
 advancement and occupations, their food and 
 sanitary conditions. 
 
 A comparison between the classes living mainly 
 on wheat, oatmeal, and potatoes would be espe-" 
 cially valuable. With this object, it would be very 
 instructive, wherever practicable, to examine the 
 teeth of all the occupants of large schools, factories, 
 workhouses, and other establishments in town and 
 country districts. Elaborate data have already 
 been published on matters relating to general 
 health, and Mr. Tomes has supplied ^s with very 
 valuable tables, exhibiting the relative tendency of 
 different classes of teeth to decay ; but, as far as 
 I am aware, the percentage of individuals subject 
 to dental caries in England has yet to be ascer- 
 tained. As the organization of the Odontolo- 
 logical Society is especially favourable to the 
 prosecution of such research, I hope that many 
 members will select and work out some particular 
 line of observation, and that the members of our 
 sister society in Scotland will also use their efforts 
 in a similar direction. 
 
 I cannot help feeling hopeful with regard to 
 the future ; and I trust that due attention to the 
 diet, and appropriate mental and physical training 
 of children, with the constant advance made in 
 the treatment of dental diseases, will be followed 
 by beneficial results to succeeding generations.
 
 74 RELATION OF DENTAL OARIES TO FOOD, ETC. 
 
 The limited leisure at my command has only 
 allowed me to pursue these investigations as an 
 occasional relaxation from my daily duties, and 
 facts have thus accumulated but slowly during the 
 past nine years. The undertaking, however im- 
 perfectly executed, has often furnished an inter- 
 esting pursuit on a holiday tour, as well as 
 matter for reflection in hours of leisure ; and I 
 can scarcely bring this protracted inquiry to a 
 close, for the present, without some feeling of 
 regret. 
 
 In conclusion, I must record my deep sense of 
 obligation to Professor RoUeston, Dr. Davis, and 
 Dr. Thurnam, also to Canon Greenwell; and to 
 Professor Flower for the facihties he has so often 
 afforded me for pursuing my investigations in the 
 Hunterian Museum at unseasonably early hours. 
 My grateful acknowledgments are also due to 
 Dr. Birch, to Mr. Newton, and Mr. Franks, of 
 the British Museum ; and to Mr. Grenfell and Mr. 
 Hamilton, who have so kindly aided me in con- 
 sulting works in the library of that institution. 
 
 I am, moreover, much indebted to the medical 
 
 authorities at Netley, and to the curators of the 
 
 various hospital and other museums which I 
 
 have visited, for the uniform courtesy I have 
 
 ■experienced.
 
 FOOD. 
 
 REMARKS. 
 
 I', "v^'ild boar 
 
 jir, barley, oats, roots 
 
 somewbat similar to tbe above 
 
 fish, .wheat, and miscellaneous 
 
 jwine, game, wheat, barley, beans, 
 e, fish. 
 
 3, ibex, fish, &c., wheat, pulse, 
 
 Maxillary bones usually vei 
 
 veloped. 
 Molai's often worn obliquely. 
 Secondary dentine formed in ' 
 
 Teetli more worn down. 
 Approximal surfaces afiected. 
 Secondary dentine formed in 
 
 Skulls extremely varied in ( 
 size. Caries often extens' 
 
 Abscess ensuing upon exposu: 
 by attrition. 
 
 Incisors, in some cases carious 
 frequent. 
 
 The preceding remarks will : 
 group. 
 
 Considerable variation in si 
 skulls. 
 
 Caries in some cases affecting 
 eluding the incisors. I 
 often very extensive. 
 
 Teeth more frequently worn, 
 tine often formed. Ab 
 rare occurrence. 
 
 Great variety of type. 
 In nine cases every molar and 
 In two cases all the upper in 
 Alveolar abscess frequent.
 
 ANCIENT R^VCES. 
 
 H » :?; ^ W 
 
 Akcient Britons (DoLicno- G8 
 cephalic) 
 
 Ancibnt Britons (Brac 
 cephalic) 
 
 Ancient Britons (Canon 59 24 7 
 Gbeenwell's Explorations) 
 
 Ancient Britons (Miscel- 44 9 3 
 LAN sous) 
 
 RoMANO-BaiTONS 143 41 a 
 
 Anglo-Saxons "U 12 7 
 
 Ancient Egyptians 3G 1-5 2 
 
 2v to 2* 2-94 34 Oxen, reil ttcer, wild boar Maxillary bones usually very iioworfully de- 
 
 veloited. 
 Molars often worn oblitiuely. 
 Secondary dentine formed in pulp-cavity. 
 
 3 2i^to 2i- 21-87 5 
 
 9 9 13 26 7 
 
 1 1 5 4 20 3 i 2 2>- to 2i 20-45 
 
 S 19 29 9 6 8 4 5 2A- to 2^ 2867 
 
 1 1 11 12 
 
 1 7 5 1 1 2ito2| 15-78 6 
 
 2i to 2^ 41-66 
 
 Deer, wild boar, barley, oats, roots Teeth more worn down. 
 
 Approximal surfaces affected. 
 Secondary dentine formed in pulp-cavity. 
 
 Diet jirobably somewhat similar to the above . Skulls extremely varied in configuration and 
 
 size. Caries often extensive. 
 
 Abscess ensuing upon exposure of pulp-cavity 
 by attrition. ' 
 
 Incisors, in some cohcs curious, and irregularity 
 frequent. 
 
 Ditto The preceding remarks will also apply to this 
 
 group. 
 
 Oxen, itheep, fij^h, .wheat, and miscellaneous Considerable variation in sizo and form of 
 hixuries. skulls. 
 
 Caries in some cases affecting all the teeth, in- 
 cluding the incisors. Abscess frequciit, 
 often very extensive. 
 
 Oxen, sheep, swinp, game, wheat, barley, beans. Teeth more frequently worn. Secondary dt-u- 
 milk, cheese, fish. tine often formed. Alveolar abscess of 
 
 Oxen, antelope, ibex, fish, Jcc, wheat, pulse, Great variety of type. 
 
 vegetables. In nine cases every molar and bicuspid c 
 
 In two cases all the upper incisoni caric 
 Alveolar abscess frequent.
 
 FOO 
 
 H 
 
 4 1 
 
 2 3 
 
 15 
 
 4 8
 
 MODERN RACES. 
 
 esqoi maux 
 
 North Americans (Coast)... 
 
 North Americans (Interior) 
 
 South Americans (Chili) ... 
 
 Fejee Islanders 
 
 Polynesian (Various) 
 
 Sandwich Islanders 
 
 New Zealanders 
 
 Austhallans 
 
 Tassianians 
 
 Malays 
 
 Chinese 
 
 East Indian (North) 
 
 East Indian (Sooth) 
 
 African (East) 
 
 Caffres 
 
 BOSJESMEN and HoTTENTOTS . 
 
 African (West) 
 
 Ashastees 
 
 lis 
 
 ^ H 2 Z 2; 
 
 a < 3i 
 
 32 1 1 
 
 3#to2f 2-89 
 
 2fto2J 3-57 28 Salmon, moose, reindei 
 
 Zygomatic ai-ch very powerfully developed. 
 Secondary dentine tilling pulp-cavity. 
 
 Teeth very extensively won 
 Secondary dentine formed. 
 No alveolar abscess. 
 
 2 3 1 1 2|to2A 800 
 
 13 4 1 
 
 2 3 * 
 
 C7 2 1 1 
 
 132 27 8 2 lU 
 
 33 9 3 
 
 24 3 2 
 
 2ito3| 15-78 
 
 2jto2|^ 5-26 
 
 2|to2* 1012 
 
 2ito2i 19-04 
 
 2*to2i 2-98 
 
 U 28 1 5 3 2ito2j 20-45 
 
 4 2* to 21 27-27 
 
 27 10 1 
 
 152 9 9 
 
 3 6 5 
 
 1 3 4 3 G 4 1 
 
 3 3 2 9 1 
 
 2* to 25 12-5 
 
 2jto2| 37-37 
 
 24to2t 5-92 
 
 2jto24 1484 
 
 2 21 to 25 24-24 
 
 1 1 Musk-ox, moose, bison, beaver and other fur- 
 
 bearing auimals j wild roots. 
 
 19 Human flesh, pigs, turtle, fish, maize, taro, 
 
 bread-fruit, plantain, cocoa-nut. 
 
 5 Goat, pig, turkey, cocoa-mit, bread-fruit, 
 
 plantain, taro. 
 
 5 Kangaroo, opossum, turkey, emu, iguana, ants, 
 
 frogs, yam, wild roots. 
 
 4 Kangaroo and other game, roots, shell-fish 
 8 Birds, fish, bananas, cocoa-nut, yam 
 
 3 Pork, poultry, fish, rice, millet, salted cab- 
 
 bage, vegetables. 
 
 17 Wheat-meal bread, beans, milk and its 
 
 products. 
 
 7 Rice, millet, pulse, fish, sheep, pork, wild 
 
 animals, roots. 
 
 4 Millet, maize, wild roots, antelopes, ele- 
 
 phants, otter. 
 
 Millet, milk, curds, maize, fish (beef ( 
 , sionally). 
 
 2jto2f 20-71 5 Wild animals generally, roots and be 
 
 236 66 22 7 23 14 35 31 23 
 
 92 U 6 
 
 6 9 2'-to2S 27-90 4 Millet, wild animals, fish, dog, roots 
 
 11-95 8 Maize, millet, bananas, yams; beef ami mutton 
 
 occmionally. 
 
 Secondary dentine 
 
 Secondary dentine 
 
 Teeth soruetimes considerably worn. 
 
 No abscess. 
 
 Caries very slight in degi'ee. 
 
 Teeth often extensively worn. 
 Alveolar abscess frequent. 
 Caries more extensive. 
 
 Teeth ill developed. 
 
 Abscess frequent. A case of honey-combed 
 teeth. 
 
 Maxillary arch very expanded. 
 Caries very slight in degree. 
 Teeth worn. Secondary dentine. 
 
 Excessive abscess, following attrition. Caries 
 often very extensive. 
 
 Similar condition, in aggravated proportion 
 and degi'ee. 
 
 Teetli often extensively carious. Alveola 
 abscess frequent. Little iittiitiou. 
 
 Teeth very fine, white, and regular, in som 
 cases much worn. Secondary dentine. 
 
 No case of alveolar abscess. 
 Teeth less i-obust, often deeply i 
 
 Caries and abscess frequent and extensive. 
 Front teeth often filed to a pointed form. 
 
 Teeth often singularly fine. 
 Secondary dentine formed, when much v 
 
 Caries often extensive. Froqii.nt irregu- 
 larity and supernumerary teeth. 
 Abscess frequent 
 A central incisor often extracted. 
 
 Teeth usually very fine. 
 Well-foriiietl supplementary teeth of fi-equent 
 Alveolar abscess rare.
 
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