TEETHING TROUBLES
Sta,—Goodness, Professor Slack is in a state. Teeth, must I repeat again. arc really not worth so much passion and high moral purpose, and the highly emotional letters of the Professor and Mr. Samson make me wonder what on earth has got into the dental profession. Cleanliness is a pretty enough notion, and I've nothing against it personally, but unless it really is next to godliness, or unless cleaning one's teeth. has a thrilling Freudian significance I have overlooked, I really can't see what my corres- pondents are so fussed about.
Perfectly prepared to believe that not all families enjoy the cheerful Gilesian squalor of my own household, I have been cart) ing out a canvass among all the young mothers I know, I cannot find one prepared to carry out Professor Slack's 'absolute' rule that a child may never, ever, eat between meals, or his other preposterous suggestion that children must clean their teeth for four minutes by an egg- timer after every meal. This may, I suppose, depress the dental profession, but will doubtless cheer the psychiatrists, as it does me.
Finally, I am a little wounded to be accused of. suggesting that children should have all their teeth removed and false teeth fitted. I was credited with this alarming idea by Mr. Samson, who was, I think, in his own excitable was.attempting to defend the Professor.—Yours faithfully.
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