Page 248 - My FlipBook

220 THE MICRO-ORGANISMS OF THE HUMAN MOUTH.

source of the decalcifying acids, and has verified our tahle (pages
208, 209), will hardly deny the correctness of this statement.
A person living on such foods onl}- as undergo no acid fer-
mentation in the mouth (meat, raw vegetal )les, roots, etc.) will,
I am convinced, he but comparatively little afflicted with caries.
If this supposition were well founded, a comparison of the fre-
quency of caries among races subsisting on meat alone with that
of races who consume vegetable or mixed foods would yield
higher figures for the latter. Caries should also then be more
frequent in phytophagous animals than in carnivora.
That such investigations are connected with enormous difli-
culties is apparent. It is extremely diflicult or altogether im-
possible to eliminate other simultaneously present, especially
predisposing causes. In the second place, the statements of cer-
tain authors concerning the food of savage tribes do not always
agree, and furthermore suitable material for these examinations
is extremely scarce in most anatomical collections.
Very interesting and valuable figures have been gathered b}'
Mummery, which are meant to establish the relation of caries to
the healthy or unhealthy manner of life of a given race.
These figures, with a few changes which concern the nourish-
ment of the races specified, and with the addition of those which
I have deduced from various anatomical and anthropological
collections, are presented in the following table :

Percentage
No. of
Ancient Races. Caries. of Food.
Skulls.
Caries.
Ancient Britons 68 2 2.94 Meat (beef, wild boar).
(dolichocephiilous.)
Ancient Britons . . . 32 7 21.87
1
(brachycephalous.)
Ancient Britons . . . 59 24 40 68
(exploration of Groen-
Mixed food (meat, fish,
well.)
Ancient Britons . . 44 9 20.45 [ oats, wheat, beans,
roots, etc.).
(mixed.)
Romano-Britons 14:5 41 28 67 1
Anglo-Saxons .... 76 12 15.78
Ancient Egyptians . . 36 15 41.66 J