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.