A BIOCHEMICAL VIEW OF "ACID MOUTH"

With the constant shifting of our knowledge on the nature of matter and energy which underlies all of the physical world, it is like an island of refuge to refer to the law, attributed to Sir Isaac Newton, that to every action there is a reaction. As stated more explicitly by Le Chatelier,¹ if a system in equilibrium is shifted, a reaction takes place which opposes that constraint; that is, one by which its effect tends to be annulled. Many examples may be found in physical and sociologic phenomena to support the fundamental observations enunciated by Newton and later by Le Chatelier. Nowhere is it better illustrated than in biochemistry; but nowhere is scientific thought and even honesty more disregarded than in the pseudobiochemical propaganda inseparably connected with the exploitation of dentifrices and mouth washes. Consider, for example, what advertising writers are pleased to term "acid mouth." It is