Review of Dental Literature and Art. [Volume: 2, Issue: 9, April, 1861, pp. 503-512]

504

THIE DENTAL COSMOS.

ment that can be imagined. With such a formidable armament, which no
doubt is moved by powerful muscles, it can be readily conceived that the
shells would be ground to a fine powder. A large proportion of the calcareous constituents of the shells are unquestionably swallowed by the
fish along with the gelatinous food, and no doubt contribute much to the
density of the dental apparatus; for Mr. Chas. Darwin-who accompanied Captain Fitzroy, R. N., as naturalist and geologist, on board of the
ship Beagle, in the circumnavigation of the world-caught several,
and, on dissecting them, found the intestines laden with nearly pure
chalk. Apparently overlooking the part such elements play in the nutrition of the osseous and dental tissues, he merely saw in this evidence to
authorize him in ranking the parrot fish as geological agents in converting the hard shells of the lithophytes into chalk.
In these instances we have presented striking illustrations of the influence
diet has upon the structure and integrity of the dental organs; and when it
is remembered that Chosat, by restricting animals to food containing little
or no phosphate of lime, succeeded in producing an artificial softening of
the bones, the most conclusive evidence is afforded that too much attention cannot be paid to this subject by the dental practitioner, and those
persons who desire to give either their own or their children's teeth a fair
chance to withstand the casualties to which of necessity they will be subjected; for the same influences which would modify the nutrition of the
osseous system would also control or affect the operations of the same
function in the dental organs.
BRITISH JOURNAL or DENTAL SCIENCE-JANUARY.
"NEW ZEALAND STEEL.-Ever since the settlement of New Zealand
by Europeans, their attention has been daily called to the peculiarities of
a kind of metallic sand along the shores of New Plymouth, in Taranaki.
This sand has the appearance of fine steel filing, and if a magnet be
dropped upon it, and taken up again, the instrument will be found thickly
coated with the iron granules. The place where the sand abounds is
along the base of Mount Egmont, an extinct volcano, and the deposit
extends several miles along the coast, to the depth of many feet, and having a corresponding breadth. The geological supposition is, that this
granulated metal has been thrown out of the volcano, along the base of
which it rests, into the sea, and there pulverized. It has been looked
upon for a long time as a geological curiosity, even to the extent of trying
to smelt some of it; but, although so many years have passed since its
discovery, it is only recently that any attempt has been made to turn it to
a practical account; in fact, the quantity is so large that people out there
looked upon it as utterly valueless. It formed a standing complaint in
the letters of all emigrants, that when the sea-breeze was a little up they
were obliged to wear veils to prevent being blinded by the fine sand which
stretches for miles along the shore. Captain Morshead, a gentleman in
the west of England, was so much impressed with its value that he went
to New Zealand to verify the reports made to him in this country, and was
fortunate enough to find them all correct. He smelted the ore first in a