The Handy Cyclopedia of Things Worth Knowing Part 3

Toothache.

Toothache is not always due to an exposed nerve, for in the majority of teeth extracted because they are painful the nerve is dead. Inflammation is often the cause of the trouble.

A toothache due to inflammation is a steady, aggravating pain, overspreading the affected side of the face, sometimes even the neck and shoulder. As there is no nerve to kill in a case of this kind, the tooth should be treated until cured, or removed upon the first symptom of trouble. Its extraction would be unattended by any danger and would afford welcome relief.

Tartar, a creamy, calcareous deposit, supposed to be from the saliva, will sometimes cause toothache. It acc.u.mulates around the necks of the teeth and eventually becomes hard and dark-colored. It also causes foul breath and loosens the gums from the teeth, causing them to present an unsightly appearance.

The Teeth of Children.

Children have twenty temporary teeth, which begin making their appearance about the sixth or seventh month. The time varies in different children. This is the most dangerous and troublesome period of the child's existence, and every parent will do well to consult a reputable dentist. About the second or third year the temporary teeth are fully developed. They require the same care to preserve them as is exercised toward the permanent set.

About the sixth year, or soon after, four permanent molars, or double teeth, make their appearance. Some parents mistakenly suppose these belong to the first set. It is a serious error. They are permanent teeth, and if lost will be lost forever. No teeth that come after the sixth year are ever shed. Let every parent remember this.

At twelve years the second set is usually complete, with the exception of the wisdom teeth, which appear anywhere from the eighteenth to the twenty-fourth year. When the second set is coming in the beauty and character of the child's countenance is completed or forever spoiled.

Everything depends upon proper care at this time to see that the teeth come with regularity and are not crowded together. The teeth cannot have too much room. When a little separated they are less liable to decay.

Dentifrices--Useful and Injurious.

The habit of caring for the teeth daily, and if possible after each meal, should be established early in life.

Those who have neglected to do so should lose no time in consulting a reputable dentist, and then persistently caring for their teeth day by day. Children especially should be taught to use the tooth-brush and some reliable dentifrice. The more pleasant the preparation the easier it will be to teach them its daily use. A fragrant, refres.h.i.+ng liquid is recommended, as it is a mouth wash as well as a tooth cleanser. The habit thus formed, neglected for even a single day, will make the mouth feel decidedly uncomfortable.

Cleansing the Teeth.

Preparations for cleansing the teeth and purifying the mouth should be free from all acids, and should be saponaceous or soapy, containing as one of the princ.i.p.al ingredients an alkali to neutralize the acids and destroy the animal and vegetable parasites which, as the microscope would show us, are in the secretions of almost every person's mouth.

A finely triturated powder having slight abrasive properties, but free from dangerous grit, should be used as the complement of a liquid. One way to use both is to pour on the wet brush or into the palm of the hand a sufficient quant.i.ty of powder and moisten it with the liquid.

Occasionally the powder or the liquid alone could be employed. Be careful to use a liquid and powder of established reputation.

Beware of thy teeth.

Take good care of thy teeth, And they will take good care of thee.

THE PERFECT FEMALE FIGURE.

According to the Chicago Tribune, Miss Helen Loewe, a student at the Chicago Art Inst.i.tute, is credited by art critics with closely approaching the standard of physical perfection set by statues of the G.o.ddess Venus. Miss Loewe was posed as a model for a series of photographs issued for the benefit of the playground fund of Oak Park.

Aside from the artistic nature of Miss Loewe, a comparison of measurements with those of the typically perfect figure explains part of the success of these photographic studies.

Miss Loewe. Perfect figure.

5 ft. 7 in Height. 5 ft. 8 in.

138 Weight 140 13-1/2 Neck 13 32 Chest 33 36 Bust 37 22 Waist 23 36 Hips 39 22 Thigh 24 10 Upper arm 11 8-1/2 Forearm 9 14 Calf 15

MEN AND COMPLEXIONS.

Dr. Katherine Blackford, of Boston, speaking of men's complexions, arrives at the following conclusions. There are, of course, exceptions to all rules: "As a general rule, the blonds are inconstant. They change their minds too often. They get angry one moment and forgive the next.

They are impulsive, and when they do commit crimes they are done on the impulse of the moment. A blond radiates his personality about him. The brunette, on the other hand as a rule, likes to concentrate on one subject. He is a specialist. He prefers his home and family, and his pleasures are more often lectures and kindred entertainments than those of a lighter order. He learns slowly, but he retains what he knows far better than does the blond."

HOW THE BABY'S MIND DEVELOPS.

In his book on "The Development of the Intellect," Mr. H. W. Brown presents a conspectus of the observations of Prof. Preyer on the mind of the child which shows chronologically the gradual development of the senses, intellect and will of the growing child and presents in a condensed form the result of a great number of careful observations.

It is recorded that sensibility to light, touch, temperature, smell and taste are present on the first day of infant life. Hearing, therefore, is the only special sense which is not active at this time. The child hears by the third or fourth day. Taste and smell are senses at the first most active, but they are differentiated. General organic sensations of well being or discomfiture are felt from the first, but pain and pleasure as mental states are not noted till at or near the second month.

The first sign of speech in the shape of utterance of consonant sounds is heard about the end of the second month, these consonants being generally "m," "r," "g," or "t." All the movements of the eyes become co-ordinate by the fourth month, and by this time the child begins to have the "feeling of self," that is, he looks at his own hands and looks at himself in the mirror. The study of the child's mind during the first year shows conclusively that ideas develop and reasoning processes occur before there is any knowledge of words or of language; though it may be a.s.sumed that the child thinks in symbols, visual or auditory, which are clumsy equivalents for words. By the end of the year the child begins to express itself by sounds--that is, speech begins. The development of this speech capacity is, according to Preyer, in accordance with the development of the intellectual powers. By the end of the second year the child's power of speech is practically acquired.

THE WONDERFUL HUMAN BRAIN.

According to the novel computations of a renowned histologist, who has been calculating the aggregate cell forces of the human brain, the cerebral ma.s.s is composed of at least 300,000,000 of nerve cells, each an independent body, organism, and microscopic brain so far as concerns its vital functions, but subordinate to a higher purpose in relation to the functions of the organ; each living a separate life individually, though socially subject to a higher law of function.

The lifetime of a nerve cell he estimates to be about sixty days, so that 5,000,000 die every day, about 200,000 every hour, and nearly 3,500 every minute, to be succeeded by an equal number of their progeny; while once in every sixty days a man has a new brain.

MOURNING COLORS THE WORLD OVER.

Black is by no means the only color used by man to express grief or mourning for the dead. In the South Sea Islands the natives express sorrow and hope by stripes of black and white. Grayish brown, the color of the earth to which the dead return, is used in Ethiopia. Pale brown, the color of withered leaves, is the mourning of Persia. Sky-blue, to express the a.s.sured hope that the deceased has gone to heaven, is the mourning of Syria, Cappadocia, and Armenia. Deep blue in Bokhara. Purple and violet, to express "kings and queens to G.o.d," was the color of mourning for cardinals and kings of France. The color of mourning in Turkey is violet. White (emblem of hope) is the color of mourning in China. Henry VIII. wore white for Anne Boleyn. The ladies of ancient Rome and Sparta wore white. It was the color of mourning in Spain till 1498. Yellow is the color of mourning in Egypt and in Burmah. Anne Boleyn wore yellow mourning for Catharine of Aragon.

CURIOUS FACTS ABOUT HAIR.

The hair of men is finer than that of women.

The average weight of a head of hair is from 5 to 12 ounces.

On an average head there are about 1,000 hairs to the square inch.

Hair will stretch about one-fourth of its length and retract nearly to its original length.

Four hairs of good strength will hold suspended a one-pound weight. A single head of hair, of average growth, would therefore hold suspended an entire audience of 200 people.

THINGS THAT ARE MISNAMED

Catgut is gut of sheep.