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Diseases of the Teeth. 85
HEAT AND COLD.*
We may suppose, that very hot or cold drinks, and hot food,
as well as great and sudden changes of temperature in climate,
* "Probably some internal action is continually taking place in the
teeth, though we are not able to trace it very evidently. The chief causes
of caries are undoubtedly external, but it may be sometimes produced
by an internal cause. We have already noticed exposure to currents of
cold air, and the medical practitioners of Germany and the north appeal
to the opposite extreme of the habitual use ol hot aliments, as a still
more general and mischievous source of the same evil. In the Swedish
Amcenitatcs Academicce, we have an elaborate examination of this sub-
ject by M. Ribe, who tells us, among other things, ' that man is the
only animal accustomed to hot foods, and almost the only animal affect-
ed with carious teeth.' Whence the author takes occasion to condemn,
in an especial manner, the custom of drinking hot tea and coffee ; and,
in accordance with this remark and recommendation, M.Tillseus, another
celebrated writer in the same interesting journal, tells us from Kalm,
in his paper entitled Potus Tkeee, that the Indians of North America
knew nothing of inconvenience of carious teeth or debilitated stomachs,
till tea was introduced among them. [Though the Swedes are celebra-
ted for their depth of research, in all scientific subjects, the above obser-
vations are bathos.] There can be no question that the two extremes of
heat and cold must be greatly, perhaps equally injurious to their health
;
and as little, that the inhabitants ol high nothern latitudes must suffer
more than others from the use of hot aliments, in consequence of the
greater coldness of their atmospherical temperature.
"To the abuse of hot beverages as a cause of caries, M. dela Salle adds
the abuse or excessive employment of sugar ; and seems to imagine that
these are the two principal means by which teeth are rendered black in
their enamel, and carious in their substance." Good's Study of Medi-
cine, vol. II, page 47.
It is a general opinion that sugar and all kinds of sweet things are
highly productive of decay, and this opinion appears to be founded on
the circumstance that they often occasion painful sensations in the teeth,
when taken into the mouth.
Sugar cannot act directly on the teeth, for, though it contains the prin-
ciple of acidity ^ its affinity for lime bears but a small proportion to that
of phosphoric acid, of which the enamel is principally composed. By fer-
mentation, it gives forth the acetous acid; by disrilation with nutric
acid, it forms oxalic acid, which has a stronger affinity for lime than
other acid whatever. Without one of these combinations, the action of
sugar upon the phosphate of lime must be extremely weak, for the min-
eral acids, the oxalic, tartaric and succinic, are the only known acids,
whose affinity for lime, is stronger than that of phosphoric acid. We have
kept, teeth in sugar and syrup for upwards of four months, and yet they
have not undergone any apparent change. The Duke of Beaufort is said
to have eaten a pound of sugar every day for forty years, and lived to
the age of seventy; After deaths his teeth were found to be perfectly
Diseases of the Teeth. 85
HEAT AND COLD.*
We may suppose, that very hot or cold drinks, and hot food,
as well as great and sudden changes of temperature in climate,
* "Probably some internal action is continually taking place in the
teeth, though we are not able to trace it very evidently. The chief causes
of caries are undoubtedly external, but it may be sometimes produced
by an internal cause. We have already noticed exposure to currents of
cold air, and the medical practitioners of Germany and the north appeal
to the opposite extreme of the habitual use ol hot aliments, as a still
more general and mischievous source of the same evil. In the Swedish
Amcenitatcs Academicce, we have an elaborate examination of this sub-
ject by M. Ribe, who tells us, among other things, ' that man is the
only animal accustomed to hot foods, and almost the only animal affect-
ed with carious teeth.' Whence the author takes occasion to condemn,
in an especial manner, the custom of drinking hot tea and coffee ; and,
in accordance with this remark and recommendation, M.Tillseus, another
celebrated writer in the same interesting journal, tells us from Kalm,
in his paper entitled Potus Tkeee, that the Indians of North America
knew nothing of inconvenience of carious teeth or debilitated stomachs,
till tea was introduced among them. [Though the Swedes are celebra-
ted for their depth of research, in all scientific subjects, the above obser-
vations are bathos.] There can be no question that the two extremes of
heat and cold must be greatly, perhaps equally injurious to their health
;
and as little, that the inhabitants ol high nothern latitudes must suffer
more than others from the use of hot aliments, in consequence of the
greater coldness of their atmospherical temperature.
"To the abuse of hot beverages as a cause of caries, M. dela Salle adds
the abuse or excessive employment of sugar ; and seems to imagine that
these are the two principal means by which teeth are rendered black in
their enamel, and carious in their substance." Good's Study of Medi-
cine, vol. II, page 47.
It is a general opinion that sugar and all kinds of sweet things are
highly productive of decay, and this opinion appears to be founded on
the circumstance that they often occasion painful sensations in the teeth,
when taken into the mouth.
Sugar cannot act directly on the teeth, for, though it contains the prin-
ciple of acidity ^ its affinity for lime bears but a small proportion to that
of phosphoric acid, of which the enamel is principally composed. By fer-
mentation, it gives forth the acetous acid; by disrilation with nutric
acid, it forms oxalic acid, which has a stronger affinity for lime than
other acid whatever. Without one of these combinations, the action of
sugar upon the phosphate of lime must be extremely weak, for the min-
eral acids, the oxalic, tartaric and succinic, are the only known acids,
whose affinity for lime, is stronger than that of phosphoric acid. We have
kept, teeth in sugar and syrup for upwards of four months, and yet they
have not undergone any apparent change. The Duke of Beaufort is said
to have eaten a pound of sugar every day for forty years, and lived to
the age of seventy; After deaths his teeth were found to be perfectly
