951. Whortleberries.—Whortleberries, commonly called huckleberries, dried, are a useful medicine for children. Made into tea, and sweetened with molasses, they are very beneficial, when the system is in a restricted state, and the digestive powers out of order.
952. Blackberries.—Blackberries are extremely useful, in cases of dysentery. To eat the berries is very healthy; tea, made of the roots and leaves is beneficial; and a syrup made of the berries is still better. Blackberries have sometimes effected a cure when physicians despaired.
953. Method of causing Children to cut their Teeth easily.—Feed them with an ivory spoon and boat—to be made thick, round, and smooth at the edges. Ivory being of the same hardness and texture as the jaws and tender teeth, the gums are not hurt or injured, but, when they are thus pressed, facilitate the teeth in their progress; whereas, the silver implements, being of a hard texture, and the edges made thin, bruise and wound the gums, and make a hard seam; so that the teeth cannot make their way direct, and, if they do cut, come irregularly; so that the operation of lancing is frequently absolutely necessary, which, of course, must prejudice the teeth, as some are exposed before the time they are fit to cut.
By this method, fevers, convulsions, &c., owing to the teeth being not able to find their way through the hard seam, may be prevented. It must be often observed, that children cry much when feeding, as if ill, or disgusted with their food; whereas it is frequently owing to quite the contrary; for, being hungry, and over eager to take their food, they press hard, through eagerness, on the boat and spoon, which, being sharp, bruises and cuts the gums, and consequently causes great pain, which, by the ivory implements, will be prevented. Those who cannot afford ivory, may have horn or wood, or even pewter is greatly preferable to silver, provided the edges are made thick, round, and smooth. The wooden sort, unless they are kept very sweet and clean, on that very account, are the least eligible, and should be made, however, of box, or such hard and close-textured wood as is the least liable to be tainted by the milky food.
954. Rules for the Preservation of the Teeth and Gums.—The teeth are bones, thinly covered over with a fine enamel, and this enamel is more or less substantial in different persons. Whenever this enamel is worn through by too coarse a powder, or too frequently cleaning the teeth, or eaten through by a scorbutic humor in the gums, the tooth cannot remain long sound, any more than a filbert-kernel can, when it has been penetrated by a worm.
The teeth, therefore, are to be cleaned, but with great precaution; for, if you wear the enamel off faster by cleaning the outside than nature supplies it within, your teeth will suffer more by this method, than perhaps by a total neglect.