THE WORLD'S DEBT TO THE IRISH
mode of eating. Physicians now insist that patients
should eat something raw every day. Irish habits
in the matter were the result of instinct and neces-
sity rather than deliberate choice but they were such
as to maintain vigor of health and strength.
The result of these habits was that the Irish had
excellent teeth as a rule. My grandfather who died
well past sixty went to his grave with all his teeth
and had never suffered from a toothache. It would
be extremely difhcult to find examples of this kind
among those who have been brought up in America.
Quite needless to say grandfather did not use a
toothbrush. He depended for the cleansing of his
teeth entirely on his habits of eating. He ate a
good many raw vegetables which required vigorous
chewing and above all he ate bread that was not
fresh but that was at least three days old and often
was a week or more out of the oven. This vigorous
chewing led to a free flow of saliva and that pro-
tected his teeth from microbic invasion while at the
same time the coarse tough bread acted as a direct
mechanical cleansing agent. The children of the
Irish did not suffer from enlargements of tonsils and
adenoid overgrowth because their vigorous chewing
supplied the salivary secretion which is antiseptic
and the activity of the mouth and throat protected
the glandular tissues of the fauces from microbic
invasion much better than the soft foods that are fed
to children in the modern times. Their poverty and
their instincts led to the formation of habits of eat-
ing that proved more healthy in the long run than the
246