Page:Personal beauty how to cultivate and preserve it in accordance with the laws of health (1870).djvu/134

 seven years, and frequently the latest of them, the "wisdom teeth" as they are called, do not arrive until adult age is reached. During the whole of this time it is highly important to see that none of them grow crooked, irregular, or too close. Judicious pressure, if necessary the extraction of one or two, will certainly restore them to their proper places. Parents should not be in a hurry to draw the "baby teeth." Let them almost or quite fall out by themselves. This insures a well developed base for their permanent successors.

The second teeth should be thirty-two in number, symmetrically disposed in the upper and lower jaws, hard, white, and capable of active service. Such a set is almost a sure indication of sound digestion, healthy nutrition, and a good constitution.

A third set sometimes appears in aged persons, and are in every respect as sound and useful as their previous ones. But when people reach fourscore, they have not much to do with cosmetic medicine, nor it with them, so we shall not delay ourselves with these extraordinary cases.

The first rule about teeth is the simplest: use them. They were given us to chew our food, and unless we put them to this use in earnest, they will give out for want of something to do, and the stomach will give out from having too much to do. Chew, therefore, the food thoroughly, and chew on both sides, not at