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Show It .3, Sc. AT MOXIXO. DECEMBER 15, 10 3 - H "Yl Predicting the Future of Mow the Study of Old Indian Jail'bones Helped Science Upset the Theory That 1111 ' . Will Make the Soft Foods of Today Coming Generations a Toothless Race -- wWJreatly Changed Features Wy EMILY C. DAVIS ' w HATere JU?M teeth coming to? The opinion i often gloomily expressed that evolution u insidiously t work on grinding and chewing tool and that the facet of the future will be very different from the facet of todav. Everyone knows that a part of the body that it no longer used hat n case of the ancient a tendency to disappear. Witness the little horses that ran on tiptoe until in the course of milleniumt their four or feet had only three toet and finally each foot had only a single stiff toe or a hoof. With such warnings from the past in mind it has been predicted that eventually men will have poor, ineffective and finally no teeth at all. Diseased teeth- - are now a commonplace among civilized men ; and the modern diet contains to large a proportion of toft, tweet, and exercises and cooked foods that the teeth- - get no strenuous setting-u- p When a tooth have to combat unfavorable chemical conditions. gets a low efficiency rating from the dentist, out it comes, in goes a synthetic tooth, and apparently the patient gets along just as if nothing had happened. So. it it tometimes argued that the next age of man will be the toothless age. The vision of that future type shows a creature with a specialized, horny gum good enough for dealing with the pills and pastes and liquids which the food chemists of that day will provide as a ... i ' .'" balanced diet. And you may well shudder- to imagine the mumbled speech and the unbeautiful faces of : that toothless race. But a more reassuring picture of n the future is seen by one scientist who has taken a long look s ,' . ' into the past By tracing the pan, orama of toothaches in the pre- history of the world for millions of years, be gauges the direction in which the world's creatures are traveling, as far as dental evolution it concerned. He hat scrutinized the fossil teeth in early beasts from fishes and dinosaurs to taber-toot- h tigers and horses, and in early men from Egyptians to Indians. well-know- five-to- ed A $dtnU$C$ restoration tne crip- San NicoU a orenutoric iclim of pUi Indian of v - . ' , well-know- ' .';, f J,' I ' i TJ 4 fV t '' - Aj4 I . ' i i ' t x " A& 1 -f' j 5(K VlV MM. jr- v by any of tM forerunners of th modem dentist except that the treatment seems to have been of bo practical value on a great many occa- - The skeleton of an Indian who lived OB San Nicolas Island, off the coast of teeth Morn at tmooth at thit foioer set southern California, is cited CoaU W ancitnt At o an tk"H from ttt Prthittoric ikulli lil(e thi$ . , . proi'e by Dr. Moodie at showing Indian. to Ki'cnd'jfi tnat man hat not dcvel- unhappy graphically uth optd poor teeth m modern time anJ, state of a Mrson suffering therefore, that the futurt hotit no from unchecked diseases of the teeth. grtat danger of bringing the tooth- In this skeleton the paleontologist read a story of aa leu age. Indian who was an exceptionally strong type. Tartar on hit teeth, pyorrhea set in, arid poisons entered his blood This wst accompanied by a serious stream. Egyptian mummies hat never revealed certain evidence of iheumatism. : Almost all of th joints f tha man's that the physicians of That land supplied artificial body, even the ribs, were affected to that he could not move ' teeth, even to the most opulent patients. without pain. So far as anyone can tell today nothing was A museum in Paris hat the jaw of a Phoenician done to relieve the painful abscesses, or at least nothing woman who lived about 300 B. C and who appears effective. to have possessed the world's oldest false teeth. The two right incisors are represented by artificial teeth held in place and bound to each other by fine gold NE type of toothache was not prevalent m earlier ones, wire. But this it not very ancient turgery as the recand that is the type due to dental decay. Dr. Moodie ord of man's diseases goet. has found that caries, or formation of cavities m teeth. From recent evidence, it teems likely that operative was about the rarest form of physical distress among the early dentistry had its beginnings in America about 2000 prehistoric animals. B. C, among the Indians who lived, in New Mexico. Among the mummies and skulls of early human being some cavities ere found, but not in such commonplace fredentists, after examining a quency at today. When groups of modem children are exIndians collection of jaws of amined yon hear such results a that 95 per cent of children thought to be 4000 years old. have decided entering the first grade of a city have one or inore decaying that the condition of several of the jawt ihowt that have abscess formation, while d teeth and about these Indians practiced tooth extraction," Dr. Moodie at college age, you hear of 3000 students being examined at one supposedly typical institution and only 10 perfect sets of says. "Growth of new bone in several cases reveals that thit process was retorted to at a relief from pain." teeth being found. Thit it an important discovery, Dr. Moodie emThese figures sound ridiculously high, but they have been No primitive race of people have ever phasizes. determined by actual surveys. Cavity formation due to bacteria entering through the enamel of the teeth occurred lets often when people bad Irtle . or no sugar in their diet. Dr. Moodie points out Then, ' too, he adds, the gritty food eaten by many tribes wore off the teeth so rapidly that caries seldom had an opportunity to gain a foothold. The frit consisted of sand, bits of stooe from grinding bowls, pieces of nut shell, seeds, bits of bone. Such extra materials became mixed in with the food when it was prepared or eaten. The teeth all wore down evenly until pulp ' I U Wert . fT'rJ? ! V ' at-ta-clr It.f If IV "-- I I - rare amonf prthit-fort-e peoplet , , . nut gritt food kfPl V. 'N - ik-l- - 'Ta T r W' Q fh J , (T) Caoitiet fr : - I ii ' 1 I i tcientist it Dr. Roy f ' 1I f P ! i If I I f 1 V 1 U i i professor of dental research at the University of Southern California and an authority on paleopathology, or, in words of two syllables, the study of disease as shown in fossil bones. Dr. Moodie takes a cheerful view of man's future in spite of the fact that thousands of people are i ' wearing artificial teeth where the natural tools ought to be; in spite of the serious prevalence of defective- teeth among school children; and in spite of the fact that pyorrhea appears to be more prevalent than ever before. ! Pyorrhea, which it today the most widespread of all diseases, was the world't oldest disease. Dr. 7"ie prehistoric horte't habit of running on tip-tcauted Moodie bat found. It is a disease hit threc-loe- d . foot (left) to develop into a hoof. in which chemical action causes eroSoft foodt, hovever, probably xton't affect to' duattroud sion of the edges of the tooth sockman't grub grindert, changing 32 teeth into tvo hard gums. Bacteria invade the sockets ets. and the teeth loosen and tall out. Now, fossil skulls examined by Dr. Moodie show that this process took place in the mouths ical hat happened to the dental ant of ancient fishes in the ages before there were any birds or atomy of South American Indians. would cause the individual to chew unevenly and the , . i " v r-nain , mammals on earth. The dinosaurs and the J:.Among the modern inhabitants of t rus would aiso cause ais7 teeth would wear unevenly, the mosasaurt, suffered from the tame disease in the same region in the Andes and the surfaces ear near turbancet of the joint pouibly the Age of Reptiles, millions of years ago, and mammals of Mountains may be found the dedeafness. ..-when scendants of the earlier population, many kinds, they appeared on earth, inherited this wastSome tribe knew the tortures of toothache much .' ing process. though there has been some interbetter than others. Among the early inhabitants of The prehistoric inhabitants of Hawaii at represented by mingling of races. And these peoNew Mexico caries often attained a great developtheir skulls and bones preserved in the Bishop Museum at ple show no sign of startling dental ment, to that molar teeth were reduced to mere Honolulu are known to have suffered from diseases of the deterioration. shells, with cavities extending far down into the teeth and particularly from pyorrhea. "If the Andean retain funcroott. And a ttudy of 300 Indian tkullt from tional teeth after generations of exCalifornia showed Dr. W. Leigh that one on the whole. Dr. Moodie finds that no human race cessive disease, we may look forIndian in four bad carious teeth. the past suffered from tooth troubles at did the In ward to a function"Among modem white people, the wis diant who inhabited Peru in the centuries before white ing of our own teeth," Dr. Moodie dom teeth offer great disturbances and men came to America. source of pain from being impacted and says. False teeth Were ruVnon in stone These were the tribe which finally were bound together It cerDr. Moodie says. decayed. needed. age America, but thev into the great Incan Empire, when a comparatively small DIFFERENT kind of warnteems probable that our wistainly that shows hard palate . . . Thit dom teeth are on the road to extincgroup of Inca. or nobles, set out in a determined campaign ing, however, may be contoothlctt the Permian owner These Peruvian Indians were more direfully of conquest tained in the example of tion, and if the white people lose at the age of afflicted with dental troubles than the ancient Egyptians those Indians. their teeth the wisdom Jeeth will The - poison from whose diseases have been studied with special care. be the first to disappear." dental infections draining into the Like the Egyptians, the Peruvian bound their dead in systems of individuals was a weakit only now probing r" -r hi ening factor which may have seriously impaired the political many wrappings, and when the bundle were put away in B""1 iTmm u SCIENCE about nutrition in dry caves in the highlands or in the desert sand of th Peru- - y welfare of the tribe. Dr. Moodie suggests. PrehUtork Peruvian, like the Egyptian, buried their dead in mummy with tooth vian coast the climate preserved the bone in good condition. ks connection Pointing out a hard palate of aa Indian who lost all bis The y pack- teeth before the age of 35 and who would have surely lost nou) it peering into them and' finding evidence Many of 'these packages have been opened and examined building and the facts about the of all tort of dental ditordert. bacteria involved in pyorrhea and by scientists seeking to know the types of anatomy of the strength from improperly chewed food, the paleontologist dental decay. Such knowledge prehistoric Indians and the diseases and wound which Jeft proposes the theory that such conditions as this among the Dr. Moodie has examined many tribes of Peru may have aided the I ocas in subduing entire traces in their skeletons. may be expected to play the maheretofore been known to adopt this simple procedure for the tribes and of the bones of these Indians. Thus tooth defects may have been a jor role in warding off the toothless age of the race. relief of pain. Dr. Moodie points out that some people today are largely "A large percentage of the inhabitants lost all of their determining factor in the establishment of the Incan Empire. The Mayan Indians 'of Centra America may have been immune to disease of the teeth, while others, for no apparent teeth by middle age from pyorrhea 'and abscesses," he says. Dr. Moodie finds no evidence that the Peruvians practhe world pioneers in another important branch of dentistry, ticed dentistry, although they were among the most ambitious reason, are victims of a variety of dental ills. In the tame ""Hundreds. "of palates were found wholly without teeth, but household a brother may suffer from one decaying tooth after and daring of prehistoric surgeons. though strangely enough they appear to have taken to this bearing the marks of active disease. another while his sister, otherwise no healthier than he, may dental operation for the sake of improving their looks. This Even ra Egypt toothaches got little practical attention. The Indianssof Pern did not suffer at much from decayed is the able to list perfect teeth as one of her outstanding, points in be bole tooth and of the a filling An Egyptian surgeon of the pyramid-buildin- g teeth at modem America does, but abscesses starting in the technique drilling some age, of beauty. socket of a tooth often penetrated into the bead, producing i cavity with a metal inlay. 4700 years ago, did operate on a patient suffering from an abscess under a molar tooth. The jaw bone shows that a infections In the sinuses which broke through into the eye This was done, however, merely as a means of enhancing If the factors that brine about that immunity can be unhole was bored through the bone below the tooth' and the derstood and the knowledge generally applied, the dental cavity and into the middle ear. This would have resulted beauty. There was apparently no application of the techabscess was successfully drained. evolution of the race may turn out to be a matter of general in a high percentage of deafness. nique to the useful purpose of keeping air and germs out of But this progressive adventure in dental turgery did not We thus have the dental history of an ancient people which a cavernous aching tooth. improvement of the health and strength of the teeth rather i teeth were lead the Egyptian physicians very far into what we would suffered excessively to that those with, than the specialized, homy gums which have been pessimisVery little $ knows of the mcantabons and potions which ' But nothing rad think a most promising field. Examinations of thousands of must have been used to exorcise the demons oi the toothache, soon eliminated. Dr. Moodie concludes. tically predicted, B. axln UZS, C. Br science Prlnu4 la Ma A.) Brrlc KTtryWMk Mag (Comic, THIS L ill .11 . j 14 ;(':i'.i':U-.'..i. . j one-thir- - - . ... . ; III r-- I 1 , 4' f BUT, r efa i pymtHa vktim , , indicat mff (Jiet dental frouolet art jfiui about 0 world't oldttL ' -- - . .' ' f V .... pwht. - ' V'v:i-'W- v Some 150,000,000 jxort thit tiant Motataur ft vat A 3. "- ' Jjf '""" X-ra- . city-stat- e. . , low-gra- |