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[Page 597]

493.
Some account of Batavia

attracts and retains dirt of all kinds in a high degree.
[Margin note] black teeth
Their teeth also  disgustfull as they must appear to an European from their blackness, occasiond by their continual chewing of Betele, are a great object of their attention, Every one must have them fil'd into the fashionable form, which is done with whetstones by a most troublesome & painfull operation, first both the upper & under teeth are rubbd till they are perfectly even & quite blunt, so that the two jaws lose not less than 1/2 a line each, in the operation  then a deep groove is made in the middle of the upper teeth, crossing them all & itself cutting through at least one fourth of the whole thickness of the teeth, so that the Enamel is cut quite through, a fact which we Europeans who are taugh by our dentifricators that any damage done to the enammel is mortal to the tooth, find it difficult to beleive, yet among these people, where this custom is universal, I have scarce seen even in old people a rotten tooth, much may certainly be attributed to what they chew so continualy, which themselves & indeed every one Else agree is very beneficial to the teeth, the blackness however causd by this of which they are so proud, is not a fixd stain but may be rubbd off

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