y contract even while they are children, and
practise incessantly from morning till night. With these they always mix
a kind of white lime, made of coral stone and shells, and frequently a
small quantity of tobacco, so that their mouths are disgustful in the
highest degree both to the smell and the sight: The tobacco taints their
breath, and the betel and lime make the teeth not only as black as
charcoal, but as rotten too. I have seen men between twenty and thirty,
whose fore-teeth have been consumed almost down to the gums, though no
two of them were exactly of the same length or thickness, but
irregularly corroded, like iron by rust. The loss of teeth is, I think,
by all who have written upon the subject, imputed to the tough and
stringy coat of the areca-nut; but I impute it wholly to the lime: They
are not loosened, or broken, or forced out, as might be expected if they
were injured by the continual chewing of hard and rough substances, but
they are gradually wasted like metals that are exposed to the action of
powerful acids; the stumps always adhering firmly to the socket in the
jaw, when there is no part of the tooth above the gums: And possibly
those who suppose that sugar has a bad effect upon the teeth of
Europeans, may not be mistaken, for it is well known that refined
loaf-sugar contains a considerable quantity of lime; and he that doubts
whether lime will destroy bone of any kind, may easily ascertain the
fact by experiment.[109]

[Footnote 109: The injurious effect of sugar on the teeth, it is
believed, is not now seriously contended for by any persons who think
and make observations on the matter, though, undoubtedly, the assertion
respecting it holds its place as strongly as ever, among the economical
maxims of prudent matrons. A word or two as to lime. When this is spoken
of, let it be understood always what is meant; whether pure lime, that
is what is called burnt lime, or the same substance in combination with
fixed air, or carbonic acid, of which the process of burning deprives
it. The effects of these two preparations are exceedingly different on
animal bodies; the former causing rapid decomposition and consumption;
the latter being, on the contrary, quite inert. Loaf-sugar, though
prepared by means of lime, ought never to contain a particle of it, and
scarcely ever does. So that, on the whole, the remarks in the text are
totally incorrect. As a matter of fact, again, the writer, from his own
exper