suggested that the eruption of the lower incisors from the seventh to the
eighth month, was for the purpose of enabling the infant--in the
pre-cooking stage of man's existence--to pierce the outer covering of
fruits so as to permit his extracting the soluble contents by suction; and
accordingly when these teeth are cut we may allow the child to bite at
such vegetable substances as apples, oranges, and sugar cane. Dr. Harry
Campbell says that starch should be given to the young, "not as is the
custom, as liquid or pap, but in a form compelling vigorous mastication,
for it is certain that early man, from the time he emerged from the ape
till he discovered how to cook his vegetable food, obtained practically
all his starch in such a form. If it is given as liquid or pap it will
pass down as starch into the stomach, to setup disturbance in that organ;
while if it is administered in a form which obliges the child to chew it
properly, not only will the jaws, the teeth, and the gums obtain the
exercise which they crave, and without which they cannot develop normally,
but the starch will be thoroughly insalivated that much of it will be
converted within the mouth into maltose. Hard well baked crusts constitute
a convenient form in which to administer starch to children. A piece of
crust may be put in the oven and rebaked, and spread with butter. Later,
we may give hard plain biscuits." Dr. Campbell continues, that he does not
say that starch in the pappy form, or as porridge, should find no place
whatever in man's dietary at the present day, but we should arrange that a
large proportion of our food is in a form inviting mastication.

The teeth perform the very important function of breaking down our food
and enabling it to be intimately incorporated with the saliva and
afterwards with the digestive juices. The Anglo-Saxon race shows a greater
tendency to degeneracy in the teeth than do other races; the teeth of the
present generation are less perfect than those of previous generations. A
dentist writes (_Lancet_, 1903-2, p. 1054) "I have had the opportunity of