FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94  
95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   >>   >|  
being easily swallowed, and acted upon by the gastric juice on its arrival in the stomach. That due mastication of the food is essential to healthy digestion, which will be promoted or retarded in exact proportion as it approaches or falls short of this point, is a fact so generally known as scarcely to need comment. Suffice it to add, that, if food be introduced into the stomach unmasticated, the gastric juice will only act upon its surface; and after a number of hours it will be either rejected by vomiting, or pass on into the intestine, to give rise to cholic, bowel complaints, or flatulence, and very frequently in children to a serious attack of convulsions. THEIR MANAGEMENT AND PRESERVATION. IRREGULARITY OF ARRANGEMENT AND POSITION.--Every parent ought to have the mouth of her child inspected occasionally, during the advance of the permanent teeth, that any irregularity in their position or arrangement may be prevented. And it is equally her duty to see to it, that she choose a competent person to do this, since great mistakes are not unfrequently made in this matter, and which themselves become the source of evils far more serious than those they are intended to obviate. "I have known," says Mr. Bell, "no less than eight or even ten firm teeth forcibly removed from the jaws of a child at once, when there was not the slightest reason to apprehend any evil result from their being left alone." Here there was a most cruel, because unnecessary, infliction of pain, as well as great hazard incurred of seriously injuring the permanent teeth by interfering with the secretion of their enamel. And besides all this there is another and yet greater evil, for, if the temporary teeth be removed, before the permanent ones are so advanced as to be ready to occupy their situation, the arch of the jaw will assuredly contract, and when, subsequently, the permanent teeth are fully formed, there will not be room for them to range in their proper situation. Thus the operation which was intended to prevent irregularity becomes the cause of its occurrence, and that in its very worst form, producing a want of accordance between the size of the teeth and that of the jaw. The eye-teeth generally occasion most anxiety to a parent, from the prominent position in which they present themselves; but in the majority of cases nothing but time is required to reduce them to their proper station. But, whatever may be the peculiarities of
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94  
95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

permanent

 

parent

 

proper

 
situation
 
position
 

removed

 
intended
 

irregularity

 

stomach

 

gastric


generally
 

unnecessary

 

infliction

 

majority

 

present

 
prominent
 

hazard

 

required

 

peculiarities

 
forcibly

reduce

 
anxiety
 

result

 

apprehend

 

reason

 

slightest

 

station

 
assuredly
 

contract

 

subsequently


accordance

 

occupy

 

formed

 

prevent

 

operation

 

producing

 

advanced

 

secretion

 

interfering

 

incurred


occurrence

 

injuring

 

enamel

 

temporary

 

greater

 

occasion

 
person
 

surface

 

number

 

Suffice