DENTAL CARIES IN THE COTTON EAT

Cotton rats have been found to be highly susceptible to thecariog-enic action of a soft and finely ground natural dietconsisting- of oatmeal, dried whole milk and sugar (Constantet al., '51). Greater tooth destruction resulted from feedinglower levels of the dried whole milk, either by increasing thecereal level or by substituting casein and dextrin for the milkportion. It seemed likely that the cereal and mineral contents of our natural diet were the factors primarily concernedin its extensive cariogenicity. The consumption of processedcereals has been considered by several investigators to be animportant factor in the increased caries incidence of manypeoples who previously had been relatively caries-free (Os-born and Noriskin, '37; Stephan, '48). We wish to reportfurther studies on the