NOTE  ON  CARBOLIC  ACID,  ETC. 
363 
daily  brushing  of  the  teeth,  they  prevent  the  accumulation  of 
tartar,  which  is  a  parasitic  growth,  and  keep  the  mouth  t^nd 
teeth  clean  and  healthy.  This  habitual  use  corrects  and  prevents 
foetor  of  the  breath  from  decayed  teeth,  and  when  taken  inter- 
nally corrects  and  prevents  that  which  proceeds  from  the  stomach. 
The  internal  uses  of  the  creasote  are,  as  yet,  not  well  studied  ; 
they  ar^,  however,  numerous  and  important,  and  present  a  large 
field  for  investigation,  particularly  in  their  relations  to  the  ex- 
anthemata, and  indeed  to  all  zymotic  diseases.  Recently  pub- 
lished accounts  of  its  use,  both  externally  and  internally,  in 
scarlatina  are  favorable. 
From  a  sanitary  or  hygienic  point  of  view  its  uses  and  appli- 
cations are  more  general  than  those  of  any  other  article,  or  per- 
haps even  than  all  the  other  agents  taken  together.  Indeed  it 
is  of  almost  universal  applicability,  but  with  the  single  important 
disadvantage  of  its  disagreeable  odor.  This  odor  is,  however, 
less  disagreeable  as  the  oils  and  tars  are  more  perfectly  separated, 
and  in  the  best  crystallized  Phenol  are  not  very  objectionable 
to  persons  in  general.  Even  when  very  disagreeable  at  first, 
it  becomes  less  so,  and,  in  a  great  majority  of  instances,  soon 
ceases  to  be  disagreeable  at  all.  All  the  evidence  that  can  be 
collected  goes  to  show  that  the  odor  and  vapor  are  wholesome 
and  never  hurtful,  even  by  prolonged  exposure  to  a  saturated 
atmosphere.  It  is  stated  to  be  a  tonic  to  those  who  work  in  it,  ' 
and  to  have  a  general  tendency  to  robust  health.  Its  antiseptic 
or  preservative  powers  have  been  long  known,  though  but  re- 
cently investigated,  and  it  is  now  believed,  on  good  authority, 
that  the  process  of  embalming  used  by  the  ancient  Egyptians, 
whereby  their  mummies  are  handed  down  through  thousands  of 
years,  owes  its  efficacy  and  success  mainly  to  this  substance  and 
its  homologues.  Many  generations  of  our  own  time  have  pro- 
tected and  preserved  their  meats  and  fish  through  its  agency  as 
derived  from  smoke,  and  all  the  preservative  agency  of  smoke, 
tar,  soot,  etc.,  is  derived  from  this  group  of  substances.  Small 
animals,  insects,  etc.,  killed  by  it  dry  up  in  the  air  without  putre- 
faction, and  it  has  been  said  by  a  French  writer  that  15  grammes 
of  it  would  preserve  an  adult  human  body  for  sixty  days  after 
death.    For  use  about  the  dead  it  is  probably  destined  ultimately 
