Extract from a Treatife on the or liquors render the teeth more fuf. ceptible of pain from flight impreffions of cold or chewing, and that the people who eat moft fweetmeats are the moft fubject to disorders and deformities of the teeth. The peafants and poor farmers fuffer lefs in this way, than thofe of rank and opulence who eat of second courfes; and I am credibly informed, that in the Low Countries, where fugar, tea, and coffee, and fweatmeats are ufed to excefs, the people, even at an early age, are remarkable for the badnefs of their teeth. It is therefore adviseable to eat of them but feldom, and always to wash the teeth after them. Cracking nuts is often hurtful to the teeth, by breaking the enamel; as is alfo the cuftom of fome girls, who cut the thread with their teeth when they few, to prevent the trouble of taking up the fciffars.

66

"The boyish cultom of raifing weights with the teeth, and of carrying a table or chair in the mouth, is as dangerous as it is abfurd, and therefore fhould not be attempted by any reasonable perfon.

"As to the conftant ufe of toothpicks after meals, I am clearly of opinion that it is a very bad practice. For all tooth-picks, and particularly thofe that are made of metal or wood, by being often pufhed between the teeth, deftroy the gums, and widen the interftices, fo as to furnish more convenient lodgment for the food, and render the custom of picking every day more and more neceffary.

"If people, after a long habit, cannot refrain from fuch practices, the tooth-picks made out of quills, or the flips of the Spanish thistle, do lefs injury to the gums than any others. But to those who are willing

19

Disorders of the Teeth, Sc.
to follow the fafeft and most effectual
methods, I recommend the ufe of
the ftraight tooth-brush, which has
the hair fixed in the end, fomewhat
like a painter's pencil. This fort
of brush, if it be well made of
fhort ftiff hair, inftantly removes
whatever fcraps of food have lodged
between the teeth; inftead of hurt-
ing or pulling down the gums,
gives a falutary ftimulus, as we men-
tioned above, which encourages
their growth and adhesion.

"I obferve in people that smoke tobacco conftantly, that the enamel of the fore-teeth has many fiffures, which run chiefly from the edge downwards. I am therefore inclined to think that fmoking is hurtful to the teeth, although it be found ferviceable in defluxions, on account of the difcharge which it occafions, and on account of its fedative virtue. But whether this opinion be well founded or not, it is certain, that with those who catch the pipe between their teeth, the enamel in that part wears away remarkably, in procefs of time, by the conftant friction of it.

It is but justice to allow that this work has fully anfwered the author's defign in publishing it, which was, as he obferves, to render his art of more extenfive utility, and to rescue it from the indifference and unmerited contempt with which it has hitherto been treated, by thofe who are pleafed to comprehend under the idea of tooth-drawing, or toothfcraping; all that is neceffary to be known or advanced on the fubject, and, therefore, place on an equal footing with the furgeon-dentift, the tooth-drawing barber, and travelling mountebank.

A

A

CAR D.

Provoco ad Populum. Friend to liberty and honour prefents his compliments to the honeft and upright public, and fubmits, whether judge Jefferies, on the trial of Algernon Sidney, did not affirm his innocence, integrity, and impartiality, in as ftrong and explicit terms as any modern lawyer has done, or can be fuppofed to do on any occafion? How far those affertions have operated against the evidence of facts, he leaves to the determination of the whole world.'

Τ

An extraordinary Inftance of Public Spirit in a Cobler of Messina.

HERE is a fort of enthufiafm in public fpirit, which renders it politically prudent in corrupt ftatefmen to difcourage it; and yet there is fomething fo great and fo divine in this enthufiafm, that ftatefmen of a better turn, though they dare not encourage, yet cannot but admire it. We have a fhining and furprifing example of this in the cobler of Meffina, which happened in the last century, and is at once a proof that public fpirit is the growth of every degree.And, which is a point that our great men ought to confider with attention, that wherever corruption becomes flagrant and univerfal, this heroic lunacy of public fpirit is moft likely to appear.

This cobler was an honeft man, ard, I was going to fay, poor; but when I confider that he maintained his family, and was above dependence, I cannot prevail upon myfelf to make use of the expreffion. He was alfo a man of reflection, he faw the corruption, luxury, and oppreffion, the private frauds, the public robberies, the enormous violation of justice, under which his country laboured. He faw rapes unpunished,

adulteries unreproved, barbarous
murders either fcreened by c-
f, or attoned for by mo-
ney; in a word, he faw a univerfal
degeneracy of manners, partly from
the want of will, partly from the
want of power in the government to
chaftife offenders. In this fituation
he refolved to undertake the arduous
task of reforming thefe diforders, and
thought it both lawful and expedient
to affume the authority of avenger
of the innocent, and the terror of
the guilty.

Full of this romantic refolution, he provided himfelf with a fhort gun, which he carried under his cloak, and equipped with a powderpouch on one thigh, and a bag of balls on the other, he fallied out in the evenings, and as proper opportunities offered, he difpatched fuch as he knew to be incorrigible offenders, to that tribunal, where he was fenfible they could not elude juftice; and then returned home full of that fatisfaction which is the fole reward of public fpirit. As there were in Melina a great number of thefe overgrown criminals, the cobler, in the pace of a few weeks, did very great

execution.

An extraordinary Inftance of Public Spirit in a Cobler of Meffina.. 21

execution. The fun never rose without difcovering fresh marks of his juftice; here lay a ufurer, who had ruined hundreds; there an unjust magiftrate; who had been the curfe of thousands; in one corner, a nobleman, who had debauched his friend's wife; in another, a man of the fame rank, who, through avarice and ambition, had prostituted his own; but as the bodies were always untouched, with all their ornaments about them, and very often with confiderable fums in their pockets, it was visible they were not difpatched for the fake of money; and their numbers made it as evident, that they did not fall victims to private revenge.

It is not in the power of words to defcribe the astonishment of the whole city; things came at laft to fuch a pafs, that not a rogue of any rank whatever, durft walk the streets; complaint upon complaint was carried to the vice-roy; and magiftrates, guards, fpies, and every other engine of power, were employed to no manner of purpose. At laft, when no lefs than fifty of thefe examples had been made, the viceroy took a ferious refolution of putting a stop to thefe mifchiefs, by the only method that feemed capable of reaching the evil; he caufed public proclamation to be made, that he would give the fum of 2000 crowns to any perfon who fhould difcover the author or authors of thefe murders; promifing, at the fame time, the like reward, with an abfolute indemnity, to the perfon who had done them, if he would difcover himfelf; and as a pledge of his fincerity, he went to the cathedral, and took the facrament, that he would punctually perform every tittle of his proclamation.

The cobler, having either fatisfied his zeal of juftice, or being now in a temper to fecure his own fafety; after having, in his own opinion,

done fo much service to the ftate, went directly to the palace, and demanded an audience of the vice-roy, to whom, upon his declaring that he had fomething of great importance to communicate, he was admitted alone. He began with putting his excellency in mind of his oath, who affured him he meant to keep it religioufly. The cobler then proceeded to the following harangue.

I, Sir, have been alone that inftrument of juftice, who difpatched in fo fhort a time, fo many criminals. In doing this, Sir, I have done no more than what was your duty to do. You, Sir, who, in reality, are guilty of all the offences which thefe wretches committed, deferved the same chastisement, and had met with it too, had I not refpected the reprefentative of my prince, who, I know, is accountable to God alone." He then entered into an exact detail of all the murders he had done, and the motives upon which he had proceeded. The vice-roy, who was thoroughly convinced, that he told him no more than the truth, repeated his affurances of fafety, and thanked him very affectionately for the tendernefs he had fhewn him, adding, after all, he was ready to pay him the zooo crowns.

Our cobler returned the vice-roy his compliments in his rough way; but told him, after what had paffed, he believed it would be but prudent. in him to make choice of fome other city for his habitation, and that too in fome corner of Italy, not under the jurifdiction of his catholic majetty. The vice-roy thought his reafons had weight, and, therefore, after thanking him in the most gracious terms for fupplying that power which the government wanted, he ordered a tartane to tranfport him, his family, his effects, and 2000 crowns, to one of the ports in the territory of Genoa; where this extraordinary perfon paffed the remainder of his days

Some Account of the Statefman Foil'd, a Mufical Comedy of two Acts; compofed by Mr. Rufh; and performed, at the Theatre Royal in the Hay-Market.

Some Account of the Statefman Foil'd.