icles of beef are
not removed, they will frequently remain till they are softened by
decomposition. In most mouths this process of decomposition is in
constant progress. Ought we to be surprised that the gums and teeth
against which these decomposing or putrefying masses lie should become
subjects of disease?

How shall our teeth be preserved? The answer is very simple--keep
them very clean. How shall they be kept clean? Answer--By a toothpick,
rinsing with water, and the daily use of a brush.

The toothpick should be a quill, not because the metalic picks injure
the enamel, but because the quill pick is so flexible it fits into all
the irregularities between the teeth. Always after using the toothpick
the mouth should be thoroughly rinsed. If warm water be not at hand,
cold may be used, although warm is much better. Closing the lips, with
a motion familiar to all, everything may be thoroughly rinsed from the
mouth.

Every morning (on rising), and every evening (on going to bed), the
tooth-brush should be used, and the teeth, both outside and inside,
thoroughly brushed.

Much has been said _pro_ and _con_., upon the use of soap with the
tooth-brush. My own experience and the experience of members of my
family is highly favorable to the regular morning and evening use of
soap. Castile or other good soap will answer this purpose. (Whatever is
good for the hands and face is good for the teeth.) The slightly
unpleasant taste which soap has when we begin to use it will soon be
unnoticed.

TOOTH POWDERS.--Many persons, while laudably attentive to the
preservation of their teeth, do them harm by too much officiousness.
They daily apply to them some dentifrice powder, which they rub so
hard as not only to injure the enamel by excessive friction, but
to hurt the gums even more than by the abuse of the toothpick. The
quality of some of the dentifrice powders advertised in newspapers is
extremely suspicious, and there is reason to think that they are not
altogether free from a corrosive ingredient. One of the safest
and best compositions for the purpose is a mixture of two parts of
prepared chalk, one of Peruvian bark, and one of hard soap, all finely
powdered, which is calculated not only to clean the teeth without
hurting them, but to preserve the firmness of the gums.

Besides the advantage of sound teeth for their use in mastication,
a proper attention to their treatment conduces not a little to the
sweetness of the b