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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (July 18, 1915)
THE ST7XDAY OREGOJOAN, PORTXAKD, JULY 18, 1915. ' fe'i' FEW things go on to their logical conclusions. Very few prophesies ever come true, end these few by the simple process of predicting: a dozen assorted kinds of luok both good and bad, and then claiming whatever happens as a fulfillment of the "stab" that came nearest to it. This is particularly true of prophe sies concerning: the future comfort and destiny of humanity, ranging- from "ends of the world" without number Indefinitely postponed, to the "some bad end" so confidently prophesied for the small rebel of the neighborhood or 6unday school, who fulfills it by be coming: a millionaire, a missionary or a Congressman. At one time we were quite sure that we should gradually be drawn nearer and nearer to the sun, until our ele ments should be consumed with fer vent heat. At another and somewhat soberer period, we were equally confi dent that, from the steady dissipation of energy and heat already under way, our globe would gradually become colder and colder, until we all froze to death. Barely a decade ago, some of our most beetle-browed scientists were In a state of melancholy certainty that we were, wasting our nitrogen, wash ing it down our rivers and out to sea at such a rate that the raw material of our bread and our beef would soon be gone, and we should all perish by nitrogen starvation. Hitherto, how ever, just as the relentless Jaws of our logical and inevitable conclusion were to close upon us, crush us, some Deus ex machina, some Perseus or St. George, has suddenly appeared to rescue us from our self-constructed and. mathe matically proven dragon. Tbe Wonders Disclosed by Radium. The marvelous vistas opened up by the discovery of radium gave the sun a new hundred million-year lease of life, and electrlo methods of getting nitrogen out of the air indefinitely postponed our wheat famine. Just at present, the dread which. In the language of the street, is "biting us," Is the general decay of human vigor and vitality under the stresses and changed conditions of civilization. While, perhaps, we are most seriously concerned with the alleged grave and fundamental degenerations and crura bllngs in our internal organs, our "works," so to speak, such as heart, arteries, nervous system, liver and kid neysyet we give many an anxious thought to the terrible and Increasing disrepair of our overhead and surface equipment, such as our thatch and our grinders. And, upon the fact of it at least, there Is no denying that we have real and abundant cause for uneasiness as to the future of these important places on our "map," and as to how It is go ing to be possible. In Oriental phrase, to save our faces much longer. More over, although some of this uneasiness may perhaps prove to be groundless, we do well to be concerned, and It is abundantly worth our time to worry a good deal fever the state of our in eissors, . canines and bicuspids. "' Be cause, not only are they exceedingly old and fundamental parts of our struc ture and of vital importance to our health and vigor, to say nothing of our looks, but there Is probably no part of the human body at present where greater Improvement - can be wrought, more Important gain in both comfort and health won and larger returns on the Investment reaped, than our teeth and gums. Whatever be our views as to their natural tendency to decay and disturb, anae. there Is nothing in our body ojer which we have more direct con trol, which is more nearly what we choose to make it in point of vigor, purity and wholesomeness, than our mouths and teeth. It is literally and in every sense true that in this 20th century a man is known by the teeth that he keeps. But what can we do to arrest this terrible decline and fall out of our Ivories, which we are sure is in full career and which threatens s with reversion to first principles. In the shape of a return to the tooth less gums of Infancy, with a corre sponding died of "spoon victuals.' Can a man by taking thought add a decade to the life of his teeth? In the first place, are we sure that our teeth jure going to the bad at such a tremendous rate, tobogganing down the incline toward tha "Full set 37.50" bottomless, or rather, toothless pit? Up goes Instantly a roar of indignant protest. "Don't I know it? Can't I feel it In my mouth, and see it going on every time I grin at myself in the glass? Did our grandfathers and great grandfathers ever have such mouth ful s of snags and decay? Not they. They kept every tooth in their heads until they were 90 years old. and of ten had a second crop at 70!" The evidence for the swiftly progressive decay of our teeth is as convincing and lncontestible as that for the bril liancy of the country lawyer whose position and pre-eminence In bis pro fession was being warmly attested by a friend, who, after citing one proof after another, triumphantly wound up with: Alarmlas; Reports Not So Bad After All "Why, of course he's the smartest man In the county. Ha admits It him self!". When we come, however, to look. Into the evidence for this rapid and uncheckable crumbling away of our grinders, we find the situation not half as bad as is usually supposed. The supposed inferior condition of our modern teeth is usually based upon several kinds of evidence. First, the suuerlor vigor and beauty of the teeth of animals and savages; second, the sounder and more perfect condition of the teeth in ancient or primitive skulls dug up from various sources. It ma; be said in passing that one great fal lacy underlies all three of these groups of evidence. "The heart knoweth Its own bitter ness," and the mouth Its own tooth aches; and while each one of us Is vlv- BRITONS CAMP American Simplicity idly aware and has the keenest of rec ollections of our own gumboils and "Jumping" pulps, we naturally have never been animals, nor mound-builders, nor Egyptians of the days of the Pharaohs, and know nothing about the griefs that they endured, or the hun dreds of thousands of cases that per ished in childhood and young adult life from bad teeth in famine times, and the infections that spread from them. Wild Animals Have Better Teeth. The average condition of teeth in wild animals Is probably somewhat better than In those domesticated or kept in captivity, for the simple reason that their teeth are their life, and the moment that their biting efficiency falls more than 10 or 15 per cent below Its normal level they go down into a living tomb, which is always lying In wait for them Just around the corner. When a wolf or a lion has lost or loos ened enough teeth so that he can no longer hold his own in a fight, or hang on to a plunging deer, or an antelope or a buffalo after he has seized it, he Is not long for this world. And the same certain and Inescapable penalty falls upon the peaceable eaters of grass and roots and nuts, whenever their grinders and croppers and gnawers be gin to lose their edge and their grind ing power. The average wild animal carries a pretty good and well-sharp-ened kit of teeth, for the stern and suf ficient reason adduced by the hunter why a fox climbed a tree, "because he had to." Much of the same state of affairs exists when we come to an actual showdown on the much-rhapsodised-over "gleaming Ivories" and superb rows of pearly millstones of savages. Probably, as a matter of fact, the average adult savage, as we find him. has a stronger and handsomer set of teeth than the average civilized man. Partly because most savages, particu larly those belonging to the negroid, American Indian and lower Mongol ian races, are of what the anthropolo gists term the Macrodont. on large- experts who have examined large col lections of these skulls declare that hollow teeth or signs of dental ab scesees are less than half as common as they would be in a similar body of adults in a dental clinic today. But the first thing that strikes us about these ancient skulls is that the over whelming majority of them are of men, and of men in the prime of young adult life at that very few women's skulls, and practically no children's skulls at all. This used to be explained on the ground that they were from soldiers killed In some great battle, toothed type, while the civilised race, even though no record or legend had fall for the most part tin the Mlcrodont. survived of a battle at that spot. But or small-toothed group: that is. sav so constant is the overwhelming pre ages have larger, stronger and more ponderance of young male skulls ia heavily enameled teeth, and longer, all large collections dug up lA the open heavier Jaws, in proportion to the rest earth that we are beginning to etrong of the skull, to correspond, so they ly suspect that we are dealing with make a more imposing tooth display, a survival of only the strongest and But tbe chief reason for the fine con- solldcstskulls, which would naturally ditlon and appearance of savage teeth bo those of young men. And as the Is the one already explained In the foundation and solldeet part of the case of the animals and that is the skull Is Its Jaw, and the Jaws depend necessity of possessing strong and effi- entirely upon the teeth and T'aate cient sets of teeth. In order to survive away when the teeth are lost, the skull upon a diet of roots, barks, snakes, which would have the best chance of old carrion, walrus hide, dog harness, surviving would be. first of all. the sandal soles and delicacies of that de- young male adult; second, the young scrlptlon, which have to be negotiated male adult skult which had the best In times of famine, which is, under and most perfect set of teeth, savage economic conditions, at least At all events we are entitled to the every other year. consolation of knowing; that even la The moment these strong, huge-look- this probably highly selected class of Ing savage teeth are subenltted to an skulls, the overwhelming majority of endurance test, a large share of tbelr which in any case-are adult males in superiority over civilised grinders the prime of life, those who have iur promptly disappears. For it Is the vlved.the perils of childhood and ado unanimous testimony of army doctors, lescence and have not yet been decayed agency physicians, medical mission- by the degeneration of advancing arles and all who have established years even among this group of hospitals or dispensaries among the "champion" skulls, there are to be savage tribes, where dental treatment found every type of dental defect, of could be given, that there is an abun- abscess, of pulp abscess, of Indications dance of every sort of carles, root ab- showing that the teeth were lot by scessas. ulcerations and loose teeth to pyorrhoea of malpositions and Irregu be found among the finest and healthl- Urltlcs of the teeth, and of failures of est savages, and that after the age lhe Jaw, to Krlp and KrInd flrmiy and of 0 or 35 years their huge ivory venly one UDOn th(. other technically crushers erode away and break down known aa malocclusion which are convictions, the amount of evidence ia in almost Inverse ratio to the confi dence of the conviction. As a matter of fact, we have not sufficient data upon which to base a positive state ment, either the one way or the other. We are. not unnaturally, shocked and alarmed to discover that from SO to 90- per cent of our school chil dren examined show one or more cari ous teeth, and that from 30 to SO per cent of our recruits are rejected by the army medical officers on account of lost or decaying teeth. But. when we lament that things were never half so bad as this In our father's or our grandfather's days, wa are jolnj beyond our evidence, because no such examinations were ever made then. The teeth of school children only began to he systematically examined about fifteen or twenty years ago. aad until about twenty-five or thirty years ago. no recruiting surgeon ever looked at a vo'un'eer'a teeth, except Just to m that h had enough front teeth to tear open Ms old-fashioned paper cart ridge it 1th. Incidentally. It may be re marked that the great importance now attached to the condttlon of tbe teeth In recruits accounts for nine-tenths of the difference between the large num ber of rejections today and the smaller number fifty years ago. (Copyrighted by Newspaper Feature Service.) Trouble in a Library. even more rapidly than those of civil ized races. Prehtsterle Evldeaee Net Coavlaelag. known to civilized dentistry. So the difference between ancient and modern teeth shipwreck at best is only one of The evidence for the . decline of degree, not of kind. modern teeth, which Is furnished by "But surely," says someone. r list en examination of ancient or prehls- ever historic conditions may have been, toric skulls dug up or uncovered In there could be no question that human chance excavations. Is at first sight teeth have been breaking down and de rather discouraging. The great ma- cay tug at a tremendous rate within the Jorlty of those "Ala., poor Yorlcks" last fifty years." Indeed, thst our mod are remarkably well stocked Jvlth teeth ern teeth are undergoing such a "gal In a very fair state of repair. The loping consumption." Is one of the corn percentage of missing and defective moneat convictions, not merely of tbe teeth Is, on the whole, surprisingly Man in the Street, but also of a con small, ranging from IS to 20 per cent slaerable proportion of dentists and to as low as S per rent. And dental dectora Hot. like a good many ether "Teacher! I want a llberrv called 'Bride of Lemon Hill!" demanded a small citlsen Just there. "The school teacher, she says I must to have HI" Phyllis thought hard. But she had to search the pinned-up list of required reading for schools for three solid minutes before she bestowed "The Bride of Lammermoor" on a 13-year-old daughter of Hungary. -This is It. isn't it. honey?" she asked with the flashing smile for which her children, among other things, adored her. "Tea. ma'am, thank you. teacher." said the lS-year-old gratefully; and went off to a corner, where she sat till closing time, entranced over her own happy choice, "The Adventures of Peter Rabbit." with colored pictures dotting It satisfactorily. The library teacher knew that It was her duty to go over and hypnotize the child into reading something which would lead more directly to Browning and Strlnd berg. But she didn't. "Poor little wop!" she thought un aeademlcally. "let her be harpy in her own way!" The Rose Ciarden Husband. DE LUXE A Contrast With IT is always interesting to play the other fellow's game his way and then, in light of experience, to see wherein our way and his way modify each other. "The above proposition here refers to camping," writes Stewart Edward White in an appendix to Ma recent book, "Tbe Land of Footprints." published by Dou bleday. Page & Co. "We do considerable of it in our country, especially in our North and West. After we have been at it. for some time we evolve a method of our own. The basia of that method is to do without; to go light. At first even the best philosophy and rain etorms, trials and trails will bring us to an irreducible minimum. A party of three will "get along with two pack horses, say; on a harder trip each will carry the necessities on his own back. "With the ideal deeply Ingrained by the test of experience the American camper Is appalled by the caravan his British cousins consider necessary for a trip into the' African back country. His said friend has, perhaps, very kindly offered to have his outfit ready for him when he arrives; He does arrive to find from 100 to 150 men gathered as his personal attendants. " Great Scott! he cries. 'I want to go camping; I don't want to invade any body's territory. Why the army?' "He discovers that these are porters to carry his effects. - ""What effects? he demands, bewil dered. As far as he knows he has two guns, some ammunition, a black tin box. bought in London and half filled with extra clothes, a few -medicines, a thermometer and some little personal knick-knacks. " 1 know this seems foolish to you.' he says. but you must remember you are under the equator and you must do things differently here. As long as you keep fit you are safe, but if you get run down a bit you'll go. Tou've got to do yourself well down here rather better than you have to in any other climate. Tou ned all the comfort you can get and you want to save yourself all you can.' - "This has a reasonable sound, and the American does not yet know the game. Recovering from his first shock, he be gins to look things over. There is a double tent, a folding camp chair, fold ing easy chair, folding table, wash ba sin, bathtub, cot. mosquito curtains, clothes hangers, there are oil carriers, two loads of mysterious cooking uten sils and cook camp stuff; there is an open fly, which his friend explains is his dining tent, and there are from a dozen to 20 boxes standing in a row, each with its padlock. 'I didn't go in for lux ury.' apologizes the English friend. 'Of course we can easily add anything you want, but I remember that you wrote you wanted to travel light.' "'What are' those?" our American In quires, pointing to the locked boxes. "He learns that they are chop boxes, containing food and supplies. At this he rises on his hind legs and paws the air. i " 'Food!' he shrieks. "Why, man alive, I'm alone, and I'm only going to be out three months! I can carry all I'll eat In three months in one of those boxes.' "But the Englishman patiently ex plains; Tou cannot live on "bacon and beans" in this country, so to speak. Tou must do yourself rather well, you know, to keep in condition. And you cannot pack food in bags; it must be tinned. And then, of course, such things as your siphons and lime Juice require careful packing and your champagne. " "Champagne breathes the Amer ican in awe-stricken tones. " Exactly, dear boy. an absolute ne cessity. After a touch of sun there's nothing picks you up better than a mouthful of fizz. It's used as a medi cine, not a drink, you understand.' "The American reflects again that this is the other fellow's game and that the other fellow has been playing it for some time and he ought to know. But he cannot yet see why 150 men. Again the Englishman explains. There is the headman to 'run the show. Correct; we need him. Then there are four askarls. What are they? Native soldiers. No. you won't be fighting anything: but they keep the men going and act aa sort of Sub-foremen in bossing the compli cated work. Next is your cook and your valet and that of your horse. Also your two gunbearers. 'Hold on! cries our friend. 1 have only two guns, and I'm going to carry one myself." "But this, he learns, is quite Impossi ble. It is never done. It Is absolutely necessary, in this climate, to avoid all work. "That makes how many? Ten already; and there seem to be three tent loads, one bed load, one chair and table load, two miscellaneous loads, two cook loads, one personal box and 19 chop boxes total 36. plus the staff, as above. IS. Why all the rest of the army? "Very simple; these 3 men have. ac. cording to regulation, seven tents and certain personal effects, and they must have 'potlo' or a ration, of one-half pound per diem. These things must be carried by more men. " 1 see, murmurs the American, crushed, "and these more men have more tents and more potlo, which must also be carried. It's like the house that Jack built." "So. our American concludes still once again that the other fellow knows his game, and starts out. He learns be has what is called a "modest safari." and spares a fleetlns wonder aa to what a really elaborate safari must be. The' procession takes the field. He soon sees the value of the four askarls the ne cessity of whom he has secretly doubt ed. Without their vigorous seconding the headman would have a hard ttmo Indeed. Also, when he observes the labor of tent-making, packing, wash ing and general service performed by his tentboy, he abandons the notion that that individual could Just as well take care of a horse, especially as the horse has to have all him grass cut and brought to him. At evening our friend has a hot bath, a long, cool, flzzly drink of lime Juice and soda; he puts on the clean clothes laid out for blm. assumes soft mosquito boots and sits down to dinner. This is served to him In courses and on enamel ware. Each course has Its proper sized plate and cutlery. He starts with soup, goes down through tinned white bait or other fish, an en tree, a roast, perhaps a curry. sweet .: . yvv:;' X and small coffee. He is certainly be ing 'done well' and he enjoys the com fort of It." COST OF A SCBMARIXE. Although actual figures, for obvious reasons, are not available, one would be under-estimating rather than over estimating tho cost of the German sub marine U-29. which the British Admi ralty reports to have been sunk, at f 200.000. This total Is based on the fact that, according to a certain official publication, the E-4 of our submarine fleet, which was completed in 113. cost 107,791; and the E class is neither the largest nor the most expensive type of submarine in the fleet today. According to the admiralty statement, the cost of the "hull, fittings and equip ment" of the E-4 was 2C.7I7. C7S.10C being spent on her propelling and other machinery. In addition to this outlay, there was an item of 1399 for "Inci dental charges." which relate to the proportionate costs Incurred while the vessel was in the hands of the dockyard authorities being finished off. When it is remembered that the U-29 was one of the very latest types of sub marines, armed with, two 14-pounder guns and two small snti- aircraft suns, with oil engines of about :0"0 horse power, giving her a nominal speed on the surfaee of 17 to IS knots, while her radius with oil in the double skin with which she was fitted Is believed to have been over 3000 miles, and perhaps as much as 4000, it will readily be under stood that the cost of her construction must have been very much more than that of the E-4. London Tit-Hits. Pr Insialllnc electric saws and hoisting machinery a Muicbtutti ice company alim laat4 tbe pvrrlrcl of ivo-hon teams and 40 aea formerly eaed la hervaatlaa lie product.