The teeth are also subjects of great care, and the infant is spared all
pain in cutting them. When the teething-time is near, and before the
pains attending it have even commenced, the child's gums are rubbed
night and morning with a bulb or root so softening and relaxing in its
effects, that after a short time the teeth make their way through the
gums with perfect ease. When the teeth are too numerous the redundant
ones are extracted, without causing the patient the slightest pain. A
hot solution of the same bulb is applied to the portion of the gum which
encloses the tooth to be extracted; causing the gum to separate from the
roots of the tooth, which is then removed with perfect ease. None are
extracted after the last have appeared, for decay is effectually
prevented. In seeking remedies for the maladies of those who were born
before my laws came into operation, the immediate cause of decay was
discovered; but we did not rest until we had detected the remote cause
and the means of preventing the evil.
By the aid of the microscope and other scientific appliances the
discovery was soon made that decay in teeth is produced by a minute worm
resulting from the absence of the proper electricity, necessary for
preserving in the tooth a healthy action. When this electricity is
deficient, the circulation in the bone becomes sluggish, the fatty
matters stagnate, and through the warmth of the gum acting on the
stagnant accumulation, a single worm is generated.
Though we had discovered the existence of the worm and the cause of its
being bred, some time elapsed before we were able to discover whether
the necessary electricity was wanting, and, by supplying the deficiency,
to prevent the generation of the worm. At length a professor, by name
Jerronska, invented an ingenious little instrument, of a form
corresponding to the upper and lower jaw, and furnished above and below
with small points or minute spikes; the instrument in a contracted shape
is introduced into the mouth and is there expanded to correspond to the
form of the jaws. It is charged with an electricity that can escape
through the spikes only, and is opposed to the electricity of the teeth,
which if healthy will cause a slight shock to the patient, without any
other inconvenience. On the other hand, if any of the teeth do not
contain the proper kind or quantity of electricity, they will turn to a
colour like fire, leaving the healthy teeth untouched; for the
instrument affects those teeth alone whose electricity is defective.
We have then the means of impregnating the unhealthy teeth with the
proper electricity, and thus destroying the incipient ovum, which cannot
live in an electricity healthful to the tooth.
In like manner, minute precautions are taken to preserve the beauty and
power of the eye. Formerly, in consequence of the intensity of light in
Montalluyah, and through other causes, the sight suffered severely.
Our physicians also found out the means of tracing and removing the
germs of defects in the ear, the nostrils, the tongue--in short,
everything that, if neglected, might impair the adult's energies and
beauty.
Great attention is paid to the quality of the air in which children are
bred, for air affects both the blood and the nerves. Its effect on the
blood was long known, through the fact that air is one of its important
ingredients; but its effect on the nerves was first demonstrated by
observing that nerves taken from a person recently dead shrivel and
contract in a vitiated atmosphere, and revive and expand when brought
into the open air.
The proper mode of rooting out incipient evils is thoroughly understood
in Montalluyah, there being eminent men, who make each division and
subdivision of various sciences their sole study and occupation. The
sight, for instance, is a great subject of study, and affords a striking
instance of our subdivision; for although there are scientific men who
have a general knowledge of the eye and of the human system, these make
particular subdivisions of the subject their peculiar study and sole
occupation. Thus, one great subdivision is the "Bile of the Eye;"
another is the "Moisture of the Eye;" another the "Concentrated Light of
the Eye;" another "The Relations of the Eye to the rest of the System,"
and so forth.
To resume: these matters, and, indeed, many more, receive effectual
attention from the moment when the child is born. Every good attained
goes on increasing under direct and collateral influences, until by a
prolific and cumulative process, extraordinary and beneficial results
are obtained in lieu of the evils that would otherwise have arisen. In
short, to understand fully the extent of the good achieved, one must
have been, as I was, a witness of the means and their effects--of the
marvellous consequences of our attention to "little things."