Humanity's has chewed everything from human gristle to synthetic rubber; a good chew has been touted as teeth-preserving, nerve-soothing, digestion-aiding, seaksickness-preventing, mind-refreshing and even sex-appeal enhancing. Read our Chewing Gum feature and perhaps you'll chicle your fancy.

The discovery of well-chewed wads of tree resin, unearthed along with bones and other prehistoric artifacts, leads archaeologists to believe that even our primitive ancestors engaged in recreational chewing. Man has chewed everything from human gristle to synthetic rubber; a good chew has been touted as teeth-preserving, nerve-soothing, digestion-aiding, seaksickness-preventing, mind-refreshing and even sex-appeal enhancing.

Our more recent forebears enjoyed chewing home-made spruce resin and beeswax gum. The first commercial batch of spruce resin chewing gum was manufactured by John Curtis in 1848. Sales were slow at first, but at two chaws for a penny, the gum became an overwhelming success within a year. By 1852, the Curtis Chewing Gum Company of Portland, Maine, employed over 200 workers in its new three-story factory.