THE DENTAL CONDITION OF NATIVEBORN NEW ZEALANDERS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13514, 12 August 1907, Page 8

THE DENTAL CONDITION OF NATIVEBORN NEW ZEALANDERS.

change visits to the confectioner's for a stroll in the orchard; for tea, coffee, and cocoa, and artificial fancy " drinks for milk, pure water, and the juice of grape and lemon and orange; to instruct his children as to what they are, and what their high birth and vocation,' as the ! offspring of God, and of the trite joys and dignity of moral and spiritual aspiration and endeavour. Why is it, that wo have so blindly unheeded the .supreme sensibility of infancy, although there is no lesson Nature is more constantly teaching us in surrounding vegetable and animal life? Why forget that, under heaven's reign of law a single violation of its laws of health, either of body, mind or soul, inflicts in its immediate and life-long deterioration? The subject is great; my letter only fringes it. Kbwi.y Cox. Cambridge.

Sir, —In your issue of the 31st ult. you quote the statement of. an experienced ■ Ohristchureh dentist that, the cause of the ; deplorable condition of the teeth of natives' born New Zealunders is "found in. the fact that parents are not nearly so strict in the colonies as in the Old Country, and do ; not make their children devote sufficient at--3 tent ion to their teeth." I respectfully subs' mit that this statement, so far as it is true, , is but. part of the truth, and very partially answers the pressing, question: " What causes the premature and widespread decay t and loss of the; teeth in this colony?" .Mv _ belief is, after twenty-two years' practice in a largo Lancashire town, that except in , the upper classes parents in the Old Country .are not more vie!, and do not compel their children to niton J to their teeth any s i more than the majority <>• parents do here. 1 ! This is particularly the case in large manuf'lct.uring- towns, as in Lancashire, where [ children used to be sent at a. tender age to the mills, and still go too early, and live and work under more or less unhealthy ■ conditions. Nor are they more thoughtful ' and careful as to the feeding of infants audi the dietary of children. In both Old and \ | this New England there is a great, and as, ' ! I may say, blameworthy dietetic- ignorance. j and want of control and regulation, in ! both there is a notable departure from the ! simpler and more healthful habits of a, century ago or less. Here, however, the I natural conditions of health are decidedly , j more favourable. We have comparatively | little city life, scarcely a shadow of slum s I misery—air, sky, water, space are all still a ! fresh and abundant.- And yet the children's 1 { teeth - are going. Why? Sir, whilst. I bej. lievc the license given to children by very ' ! many colonial parents is enough to ruin v I them body and soul, I yet think there are f one or more deeper causes of the wretched condition of their teeth that are only Ij> - j ginning to be suspected and examined. s What, for instance, is the influence of cli : i rnato upon disease, and therefore upon the 1 teeth, of nil immigrant population? Is the 1 opinion of the late Mr. S. H. .Cart-wright, of London, formed after experience in Ausj tralia, Tasmania, and America, that ciii mate and Nature will assort their own and exhaust the. vitality of all expatriated races, s true? Or the belief held by many that the L American people have the worst teeth of v any nation, and that this is _ chiefly owing ( -l to climatic influence? Vaccination, as a i dental malfacient. its inevitable morbid J systemic effects, its disturbance and contamination of the marvellous processes of s dental formation and development; the | overstimulating, inflammatory effects of animal food, of alcoholic drinks, of tea and s coffee (in excess), and the slow but sure rey suits of smokingthese and other habits ' have spread their poisonous influence enor- " mously* during the last century, and have' at length compelled investigation, and the warning protest of scientific authority. In a word, there exists a vital 'sympathy bex tween the dental condition of a race and i its habits and modes of life. Is it Utopian to strive, for and expect the reformation-of 1 wrong and unwholesome national habits? No more than lor those of an individual. It, is or ought to be. well within the power and'authority of a parent, by the rule of d reason and affection, to control the diet and! health conditions of his children; to. exs change Euperfino white flour bread for fine, i- whole-wheat meal bread; to exchange a flesh diet foj fruits and farinaceaj; to ex-