B.

FRANCIS.

EXPERIENCE is a good teacher, but is often a very dear one, as perhaps all of us know. We occasionally review our past lives with many regrets, and think within ourselves, that if we could only live our lives over again, how differently we would act. We would pay more regard to our physical natures, in order to acquire strong healthy constitutions, and exercise more prudence and discretion in all our doings. But now, alas! many are suffering severe penalties for violating the laws of Nature, and neglecting to assist her in the completion of the task. The large majority of mankind are suffering, to a greater or less extent, from defective teeth, where a little timely care would have saved those useful organs for a long life of years, to add beauty to the countenance, health to the body, and assist in the utterance of speech.

The reader will please consider the above a sufficient apology for a few brief remarks upon the subject of dentistry. Parents are apt to pay but little attention to the cleanliness and regulation of their children's teeth; either from sheer negligence, or from fear of causing their little ones a momentary and trivial amount of pain. They should remember, however, that they are doing their children great injustice; for not only is the pain increased two-fold, by neglect and delay, but the teeth will become diseased, and the general health impaired. The eruption of the first set of teeth causes an incalculable amount of pain to the child, generally producing various forms of sickness,

They usually come in pairs, the two centre incisors of the lower jaw appearing first. The term incisor is applied to the front or cutting teeth, and the back or double teeth are called molars or grinders. The upper cuspids are the eye teeth, and the lower ones, the stomach teeth. The full complement of temporary or milk teeth number twenty-ten in each jaw. The prevailing idea is, that inasmuch as the temporary teeth are intended to serve the wants of the body for only a few years, and are then to be replaced by more substantial ones, that it is of little importance whether they remain until forced out by their successors, or

are lost a year or two earlier. It is an erroneous idea, however, and one that has been the source of much mischief. If the temporary tooth decays, its lining membrane is often exposed, causing inflammation, pain, and tumefaction; sometimes exfoliating portions of the jaw-bone. The crowns of the secondary or permanent teeth are situated immediately beneath the roots of the primary, and being susceptible to injury in their formative stage, are liable to be affected by the morbid influence of the latter. The decay and premature loss of the temporary teeth is a frequent source of irregularity in the arrangement of the permanent, and if for no other reason than the prevention of this, they should be preserved until time for their successors to appear.

Some few people, even at this advanced age, imagine that the milk teeth never have any roots, as they are generally found to be wanting when removed. The cause of their disappearance is attributed to the infringement of the permanent tooth upon the fang of its predecessor, thereby cutting off its nervous and arterial supply, and destroying its vitality. This is followed by an absorption of its fang, to a greater or less extent, rendering it loose and easily removed.

We will now notice the periods for the eruption of the secondary teeth. The parent will observe that the first molar teeth are the first to protrude. The ignorance of this fact often causes these teeth to be neg. lected, for they are generally considered as belonging to the first set.

occasionally examine them; who will detect any defect and correct any deformity in their arrangement.

The utility of the teeth, and their effect on personal appearance, is of too much consequence to suffer their loss by decay. If they are perfect, regular, and clean, they contribute greatly to the beauty of the features; but if neglected, diseased, or incrusted with an offensive accumulation, they excite in the beholder both pity and disgust.

To illustrate this fact, the following remarks are quoted from a celebrated author: "If the sculptor, the painter, or the poet, would invest the production of his genius with those forms of horror at which humanity shudders and recoils, he perfectly comprehends the art of giving to his allegorical personages an array of teeth, black with tartar, mutilated with gangrene, broken by violence, or wrested by distortion. Should Envy present herself to the group, her parted lips would disclose but a single fang. Should Malice approach to persecute his victim, his teeth would be turned awry, as if by the violence of his passion. Thus the wrinkled witch, the smoky gipsy, the fortune-telling hag, and the freebooter of the seas would lose the proper expression of their distinctive characters, if supplied with fect, regular, and beautiful sets of teeth.

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"On the other hand, the skilful artist, who would exhibit the amiable and worthy passions in all their loveliness and attraction, bestows untiring labor in the exhibition of perfect arches of teeth, white as monumental alabaster, and as regular as the crystal columns in the palace of Odin, inhabited by the virgins of Valhallah. If he exhibit Beauty in her smiles, a colonnade of pearls contribute to the enchantment: if he show us Love with music on her lips, the emblematic purity of her teeth must lend its tributary charm. Thus, the ideal Venus of the polished Greeks, as well as the living beauty in the hamlet of Circassia, would cease to please, on the discovery of sensible defect in these important organs."

The form may be ever so gracefully

moulded, the features ever so regular, the complexion fair as the beautiful tints of the morning sun, and the eyes may sparkle with the brilliancy of a diamond; but should a gentle smile part the ruby lips of a fair beauty, and disclose a ghastly array of neglected teeth, how visible would be the contrast, and how pitiable the object!

But the beauty is not alone abused by defective teeth, for they injure the health to a great degree, causing neuralgia, fevers, and the worst form of dyspepsia. The food is imperfectly masticated, and is saturated with the vitiated saliva of the mouth, which is corrupted by the influence of the morbid teeth. The breath also becomes fetid, disgusting whoever may approach, although it may not be apparent to its possessor.

In the articulation of words, we also need the assistance of the teeth. How important to the orator, whose eloquent expressions would lose half their effect, did he lisp them

through broken teeth or toothless jaws! The vocalist, too, sensibly feels their loss, for without their aid, the, voice is difficult to command.

The writer has endeavored, in as concise a manner as possible, to impress upon the public mind the importance of attending to the preservation of the teeth. In this case, an ounce of prevention is more than equivalent to a pound of cure; but if the reader is already suffering from defective masticators, it is time to remedy the evil as far as possible, by attending to them at once, for further delay may lead to their entire destruction. Consult an efficient dentist, and none other. Beware of empirics, for they are numerous, and may cause you irreparable mischief. Spare not the tooth-brush, nor consider it too much trouble to use it at least twice each day, for it will well repay you for all time thus spent, and tend in one degree to insure health, comfort and happiness.

LADIES in the present day dress very absurdly. They make balloons of their dresses by puffing them out to enormous widths, in a style of profusion which strikes the boldest man with a sort of fear. They press themselves into unnatural dimensions, screw their bodies into fantastic forms, and take wonderful pains to insinuate into strange shapes the bodies which God made beautiful. Why they go to all this trouble is a mystery to the other sex. If for the sake of making themselves attractive, they fail, because most men love nature; and if for the purpose of deceiving any one, they only deceive themselves. Lord love you! We men know all about it; we know that those wasp-like waists are only compressed muscle, forcing disease upon healthy systems, although born with smiling faces. And do you not believe that the ladies' maids, fresh and blooming from the country, with the sweet tints of Nature on their rosy cheeks, laugh in their sleeve when they paint their mistresses? Of course they do; and the lady, brilliant and proud in gilded saloons made dazzling with splendor and wealth, trembles when she recollects that her maid is in the secret, and may reveal at any moment the awful fact that the color on her young lady's cheek is not genuine. So it is with every thing of this kind many adventurers who walk about in all the brilliance of white linen, and in the pride of false fronts and collars-the other shirt being with the laundress-feel bitterly that she is in the secret, and knows exactly the state of their wardrobes. So is it with every thing. No man is a hero to his valet-de-chambre," saith the proverb; and

so, in like manner, are few women angels to heir ladies'-maids.

But the dear creatures might be, if they had a mind to-if they would only leave Nature, who ought to be the guiding star of milliners, to assert her rights. But they will not. They must paint, and spread themselves out on sofas like heaps of clothing, ticketed as plainly as possible, if you only know how to read the label-" Wealth and good taste uniting for an offer." There are, thank Heaven, exceptions to this rule, as there are to all others. I know several myself— such good, sensible, amiable girls as it is quite a pleasure to know, and an honor to be intimate with.

Nina Elhingham is one of these. Ishould not call her Nina Elhingham now, because she is married, and has, oh! such a dear little daughter, the most famous hand at ropeskipping you ever saw. However, my story commences at a period when Nina Elhingham was single, and an amiable, unaffected, good girl, far above the follies of the day, but merry and light-hearted, as all good people are and must be; they can't help it. Happiness in its purest form is, after all, only the reflection of other people's joy on hearts which are pure enough to appreciate it without selfishness.

Nína had never throughout her young life and she was then nineteen years of age known sorrow or grief. Bred up with tenderness by an indulgent parent, her time had ever passed calmly and happily, as the course of a sparkling streamlet in the sunshine of perpetual Spring would seem to do. She had never experienced sorrow, for she