Page 15 - My FlipBook

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degree of their advancement, have the teeth been an object
of attention, their regular arrangement and beautiful forma-
tion viewed with pleasure, and the means of their preserva-
tion considered a desideratum. But as the records of the
past, previously to the invention of the art of printing, were
made with much difficulty, and at a great expense of time
and labour ; they are necessarily scanty in number, and very
general in their delineations ; whilst the frequent overthrow
of the luxurious, refined, and polished nations, by barbarians,
who paid no respect to learning, the learned, or their works,
contributed to a great, and, in many cases, almost overwhelm-
ing extent, to dissipate and nearly extinguish, the few lights
of learning, that had shone during the long period ante-
cedent to the discovery of the art of printing. And when
it is considered that, probably, an account of very few of the
great revolutions, which at different and remote periods, have
convulsed the natural and moral world, has ever reached us,
we need not be surprised at finding no elaborate works upon
the teeth amongst the writings of antiquity ; but are left to
glean a few observations upon this subject, from the wri-
tings of their poets ; and to draw conclusions upon it, from
the customs of succeeding generations. The Bramins of
India, at this day, make the cleaning of their teeth a matter
of religious observance. " As this custom," says Mr. Mur-
phy,* " is coeval with the date of their religion and govern-
ment, it exhibits a curious proof of the regard which this
scientific people had for the purity and beauty of the
mouth ; when this practice is inculcated as a law, and ren-
dered indispensable as a religious duty." I scarcely need
remark, that the Bramins are considered as the remnant of
one of the oldest polished nations upon the earth ; and

* See Murphy, page 151.