The mouthing experiment showed that even young children kept toys in their mouths less than two minutes a day.

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If food is scarce, then the presence of extra mouths offsets the advantage of having a nanny or two.

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Two hundred years later, we have nearly ten times the mouths to feed, but never has the general population of mankind been better off or the future brighter.

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And needles were even sometimes used as weapons, usually thrown at their victims, although two inch-long needles called fukibari were carried in the mouths of ninjas and spat into enemies' faces.

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Two years later, with a stagnant industry and six million new Americans, there 18 more mouths, or a total of 986, for each outlet.

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