at deficient vision is common and that good eyesight is not a thing to
be assumed.

In the country it is more difficult, perhaps, to realize these
deficiencies, because the constant outdoor life acts as an offset to
the strain during the time when close work is required, and perhaps the
distance from a competent oculist serves to postpone the time of
consultation, but no greater folly can be indulged in than to suffer
inflamed eyes, persistent headache, and imperfect vision, if it is
possible in any way to secure the services of an oculist.

Never is it worth while to buy from a jeweler, a grocer, or a hardware
store a pair of spectacles, much less to buy them from an itinerant
peddler, since an oculist, with his particular apparatus, can measure
the seeing ability of each eye and fit each eye with the necessary lens
to restore normal vision. It is better to have no glasses than to have
glasses that are wrong.

_Teeth._

A curious result of the recent studies among school children with
defective eyes and ears has been the discovery that bad teeth were quite
as important in their relation to general health as either bad eyes or
ears. One eye specialist went so far as to say that the teeth of school
children should be attended to first, because thus many of the eye
troubles would disappear.

As has already been pointed out, the first, step in digestion is taken
in the mouth, and careful chewing is not less important than the other
parts of the digestive process. If one's teeth are not adapted to
chewing, if they are bunched, crowded, loose, or isolated, the
appearance of the teeth is the least objectionable feature. The real
importance comes from the fact that with such teeth perfect mastication
is impossible. The teeth themselves harbor germs which actually infect
the food and favor its putrefaction. With decayed teeth, infectious
diseases find a ready entrance to the lungs, nostrils, stomach, glands,
ears, nose, and membranes. At every act of swallowing, germs are carried
into the stomach. Mouth breathers cannot get one breath of
uncontaminated air, and dental clinics, organized and conducted in the
interests of the health of school children, have been altogether too
little inaugurated. The use of a toothbrush should be encouraged in
children as soon as they are four years old, and its habitual use twice
a day is most desirable for every one.

Only regular examination by the dentist can keep the teeth in good
co