ere
will be little occasion for any other dentrifices than pure water and
a little soap. Your tooth-brushes should be rather soft; those which
are too hard injuring both the teeth and the gums.

8. _The Breath._

A bad breath arises more frequently than otherwise from neglected and
decayed teeth. If it is occasioned by a foul stomach, a pure diet,
bathing, water injections, and a general attention to the laws of
health are required for its removal.

III.--EATING AND DRINKING.

Whatever has a bearing upon health has at least an indirect connection
with manners; the reader will therefore excuse us for introducing here
a few remarks which may seem, at the first glance, rather irrelevant.
Sound lungs, a healthy liver, and a good digestion are as essential to
the right performance of our social duties as they are to our own
personal comfort; therefore a few words on eating and drinking, as
affecting these, will not be out of place.

1. _What to Eat._

An unperverted appetite is the highest authority in matters of diet.
In fact, its decisions should be considered final, and without the
privilege of appeal. Nature makes no mistakes.

The plant selects from the soil which its roots permeate, the chemical
elements necessary to its growth and perfect development, rejecting
with unerring certainty every particle which would prove harmful or
useless. The wild animal chooses with equal certainty the various
kinds of food adapted to the wants of its nature, never poisoning
itself by eating or drinking any thing inimical to its life and
health. The sense of taste and the wants of the system act in perfect
harmony. So it should be with man. That which most perfectly gratifies
the appetite should be the best adapted to promote health, strength,
and beauty.

But appetite, like all the other instincts or feelings of our nature,
is liable to become perverted, and to lead us astray. We acquire a
relish for substances which are highly hurtful, such as tobacco,
ardent spirits, malt liquors, and the like. We have "sought out many
inventions," to pander to false and fatal tastes, and too often eat,
not to sustain life and promote the harmonious development of the
system, but to poison the very fountains of our being and implant in
our blood the seeds of disease.

Attend to the demands of appetite, but use all your judgment in
determining whether it is a natural, undepraved craving of the system
which speaks, or an acquired an