most people who take stimulants at all take more than they really need, partly because of the pleasant effect of stimulant in the heightened vividity it gives (leaving anything like drunkenness out of the question), and because of the taste of alcoholic beverages, which nine out of ten people find most palatable. Here again preachers of total abstinence put forward an argument so silly that it is scarcely worth combating (were it not for the fact that it is so often repeated), when they say that what we have called "heightened vividity" is the thin end of intoxication. It is nothing of the kind. Food itself is a stimulant as well as a nutrient; a mutton chop or a welsh rarebit when one is hungry gives heightened vividity; so also does whisky and soda.

But, and here we tread more sensible ground, it must be remembered that alcohol is not a nourishing stimulant, and that its effect quickly wears off, leaving reaction, however slight, in everybody. Nor must we keep out of the question what the continued effects of alcohol are. Its bad results may not be apparent for a long time. In certain cases there are bad results; in certain other cases apparently there are none. Authorities on training are universally agreed that very little, if any, should be taken when the training has begun; and they are unquestionably right, because the object of training is to produce before a certain date or during a certain period a specimen of manhood at its highest possible physical level, strung up and maintained at concert pitch. To do this the whole structure must be sound, and stimulant then appears to be of the nature of a temporary prop, which has again and again to be set up afresh. Also, repeatedly applied stimulant followed by repeated reaction is not ideal.

The same remarks apply to the ordinary individual in a less degree; for though he should aim at ideal health, he does not want the sort of health which a boat-race crew want. In fact, in a necessarily sedentary life it would be exceedingly inconvenient to him; for to maintain it it seems necessary to have hard daily exercise; quantities of open air, and hours which are practically impossible for the ordinary man who has to do his daily work. An abstemious man who has been accustomed to alcohol may easily, if he drops its use altogether, find himself continuing to desire it, at an expense of nervous fretting which will cost him more than the possible gain in health may be worth. But when any man who takes alcohol finds himself desiring it more and more and in increased quantities; if even at one meal, let us say, he is unable to get it, and finds himself fretting for it, we have no hesitation in begging him at whatever cost to drop it altogether and at once. We do not say he is on the highroad to become a drunkard, but somewhere ahead of him there easily may be that highroad.

Here comes in the question of the general regulation of drinks, which, theoretically, we are afraid, is a most uncomfortable gospel. For the effect of drinking cold things during a meal, except in very

small quantities, is without doubt digestively criminal: since the result of pouring cold aspersions into the stomach while it is busy with digestion is to lower its temperature at the time when heat is needed, and also to weaken and water down the digestive juices.* There is no getting over this: long drinks on hot days at lunch are not to be recommended. But even here the baffled voluptuary may find a way out which is not so disagreeable. He may by all means have his long drink half an hour before lunch, or at a rather longer interval after. If he choose after, he will find, especially if he has eaten fruit at lunch, that he does not want it, and that though the satisfaction of a real throatful of cold liquid is denied him, he will have taken during lunch quite sufficient liquid to satisfy his thirst.

THE CARE OF THE TEETH IN RELATION TO HEALTH.

BY

OSCAR HOMBERGER, PH. G., D. D. S., ETC.; FORMERLY DEMONSTRATOR OF CLINICAL DENTISTRY IN THE DENTAL DEPARTMENT OF THE MEDICO-CHIRURGICAL COLLEGE OF PHILADELPHIA.

NOTE. Physical education, as the reader will have learned from the many Contributors to this Section, is not, as many have been accustomed to think, a mere training of the muscles. It covers the proper care of the whole person, and it is part of a proper Physical Education to know how to take care of one's teeth, for, as the following article shows, health, strength, and beauty depend to a very large extent upon this being done.-[C. W.]

T

No

HE teeth should be examined and thoroughly cleaned three or four times yearly. (In extreme cases even oftener.) person is able to thoroughly cleanse his own teeth. If food is permitted to remain between or on the teeth the action of bacteria converts this débris into lactic acid and other products. This, together with the tartar (a hard bone-like substance) which is deposited about the necks of the teeth, by the action of the saliva, causes recession of the gums, and so lowers their vitality that the disease germs which are to be found in all mouths, whether healthy or otherwise, are enabled to bring about effects ranging from very slight to intensely serious conditions such as the loss of all the teeth and other evil results.

Furthermore, the lactic acid dissolves out the cement-like substance between the rods of enamel in the teeth, causing them to fall out, and allowing the various bacteria of disease or decay free access to the inner structure of the teeth. The individual then swallows increased quantities of the said bacteria. These have a directly bad action upon the general health. The white blood cells have as one of their functions the killing of disease-producing bacteria. Up to a certain *On the excitation of the gastric juices by digestion only, see Schäfer, "Textbook of Physiology," Vol. I., page 349.

limit they can do this. If, however, the quantity of bacteria becomes too great for the white blood cells to triumph over them, diseases result.

con

When it is borne in mind that one of the principal bacteria co cerned in the decay of teeth is the bacillus of diphtheria, the serious results that follow on neglect of the teeth may be understood. It is not the intention to convey the idea that diphtheria may result from neglect of the teeth, but it is true that a general lowering of vitality may result from this neglect, thus causing a predisposition to disease in general, and if diphtheria is contracted the disease may be worse on account of the condition of the teeth, and the presence of the additional diphtheria bacilli.

Another result of neglected teeth is that the pain incident to mastication prevents this function being perfectly performed, and indigestion and malnutrition result. Finally, where the patient has permitted his teeth to abscess, a general fever almost always results, and it has even been known to produce general blood-poisoning, and cause death. Still another fact of particular interest to the physical culturist is that pain causes nervousness, and consequent loss of vigor, and this condition is much accentuated by the general lowering of vitality which has been previously mentioned.

As has been shown then, it is extremely necessary to take proper care of the teeth. Now what is meant by this? Every person should clean his teeth at least twice daily (before retiring and after rising). For this purpose we use a brush of medium bristles, and a good tooth powder, which contains no grit. Likewise use a good mouth wash to harden the gums and keep them healthy. The following has been used successfully for years:

R Hydro-naphthol

Alcohol
Glycerol

Aqua Dest

15 gr.

1 oz.

1 oz.

1 oz.

Sig. 15 to 25 drops to a half-glass of water, used as a mouth wash from two to four times daily.

If needful, a piece of floss silk should be used between the teeth. Never pick at the teeth with pins or other sharp instruments. If fillings or extractions are needed, they should receive attention without delay, as the pain incident to a dental operation is practically non-existent if the case is treated in time; when the patient delays his visit to the dentist until he is in pain, he cannot expect the dentist to do his work painlessly.

A great mistake, which is made by numbers of persons, is to give insufficient care to the temporary teeth of children. They should be cared for with exactly the same solicitude as the permanent set. If the temporary set is not given attention, the second set will suffer for it. Never allow a decayed temporary tooth to remain without having it filled, as the decay is very likely to travel downward and infect the permanent tooth forming below. When a tooth cannot be saved

by the dentist it should be extracted at once, but never have a tooth extracted until it is necessary, as irregularities often result from this, and mastication is made defective, causing dyspepsia and malnutrition. Because the public is more careless with the teeth of children, the latter are the greatest sufferers from toothache and the other troubles just referred to. On the other hand, if temporary teeth are allowed to stay in too long, irregular teeth are sure to result. To tell just at which age each tooth should be extracted would make this article too technical, but if the dentist is visited as often as advocated here, he can tell when this should be done.

In closing, special stress must be laid on the importance of having the teeth regulated at an early age. If the teeth are irregular, a regulating device should be made and worn not later than at the age of 13 or 14. In this way the result may be accomplished with the minimum of effort. When the patient is older the teeth are more firmly in position, and an attempt to move them is far less likely to be perfectly successful.

THE INFLUENCE OF TRAINING ON MIND AND MORALS.

I'

BY

E. F. BENSON AND EUSTACE H. MILES.

'T is impossible to make the simplest movement of any kind without the conscious or unconscious direction of the mind, so inextricably are the two bound up together; and from the earliest times physicians, both spiritual, mental, and physical, have known that the soul can be reached through the "subtle gateways of the body." This aspect of training, the importance, that is, of the cleanly health of the body, and its prompt and unrebellious obedience to the will, which is concerned with this question, has been alluded to before, and is dealt with more fully here.

Many people hardly know what real attention means: there is no better way to teach it than to make rapid and correct movements, which cannot be made without it. In the same way, also, these exercises give the habit of control. A man who has brought mind and body into the relation of master and willing servant, even in so elementary a matter as this, is going on the right road to teach himself control in the largest choices and difficulties. So, too, in other points of training: a man who has made himself able to drop smoking, or abstain from stimulants, or from certain sorts of food which he likes, but which his reason tells him are bad for him, has not improved his power of self-control in that point only, but has begun, at any rate, to form a habit of it; and the exercise of selfcontrol, in one point only, will make his power of control stronger all From "Daily Training," London. See note, page 367,

round, in each and every case where his reason suggests control to him. It is here, as a tonic to the mind, that training of some sort, apart from all its other uses, is recommended to everybody; not training for some special event, which, as soon as the event has come off, is dropped, but a daily and continual observance of certain rules of health, a daily practice of exertion of will and obedience of body.

Again, the health of the body contributes directly to the power and strength of the mind. Work, which is irksome and comparatively badly done by a man who, for any cause, digestive or otherwise, is in only moderate health, will be done by the same man with zest and far better results if he is in good health. Also, the mind is able to accomplish not only better work but more work, when the whole system is not laid under a general tax to repair and make well any enfeebled or clogged organ. A single rusty joint, a badly fitting valve in an engine, makes the whole run less smoothly than it should, and also implies a waste of energy. Body and mind together, working in coöperation as they always must, are a close parallel to this. The one cannot possibly be at its best unless the other is in health. Rightful activity in the one stimulates activity in the other, just as artificial stimulants, such as spirits to the body, induce a mental activity in all respects like the physical one, temporary in character and followed by reaction. But the habit of briskness, of activity, of quick decision, is a thing fully as much mental as it is bodily; the two are inseparable, and, therefore, in the training of the body, the qualities which we should aim to acquire are those which are mentally desirable. One man's mind may, it is true, be naturally a much less fine instrument on its own level than his body, and much less easily trained, but the self-control, the alertness, the habit of speed, which such training as we have sketched out gives, will directly and inevitably affect his mind. It may still be slow and laborious in its workings, but it would otherwise have been slower. Also, whatever work it does it does better, because it is not clogged, hindered, and distracted by an unhealthy body.

Now this interweaving of mind and body is so complex, so closely knit, that it would perhaps be beyond the sphere of safety to say that the knitting together of the body and that within us which is the spring of moral, not intellectual qualities, the soul in fact, is closer than that of the mind and body. In any case, the interdependence of body on soul, of soul on body, and of both on the mind is practically complete, and this human trinity makes up man. There is no healthful habit of body which does not directly exercise a healthful influence on the soul, no harmful habit which does not hurt it. The body sins, and in its secret place the soul sickens. From the other side, also, a high moral standard infallibly leads the body to adopt healthy habits, a low moral standard suffers it to drift into physical crime and degradation.

Now city life, especially to any one who has been accustomed to