Summary

This bone toothbrush was excavated during one of the digs conducted at the Commonwealth Block site between 1988 and 2003.

Health and hygiene.
'Cleanliness is next to Godliness'. This is a difficult maxim to follow when 'there is not one bath in sixty', when sewerage gathers in cesspits and open drainage channels line the streets.But the residents of Little Lon did practice personal hygiene. Archaeologists have uncovered toothbrushes and toothpaste pots, scent bottles, soap dishes, combs and hairbrushes.
Clean teeth and neat hair did not guarantee good health however. Doctors were expensive, so ordinary people had to rely on medicines like Holloway's Ointment and Hall's Vegetable Pain Conqueror as well as Chinese herbal remedies. Children were dosed weekly with the laxative castor oil, to keep their bowels regular.

Physical Description

This is a worked bone tooth brush. It has a short handle with a circle removed from the end and there are five rows of holes for bristles in the head.

Physical Description

Worked bone tooth brush. Short handle with circle removed from the end. Five rows of holes for bristles in the head. Length 136mm. Identified as bone by the Museum's Conservation Department in 1999.

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