DENTIFRICES. 
539 
so  agreeable  to  the  taste  that  I  would  advise  you  all  to  import  a 
quantity  at  once.  I  might  give  you  prescriptions  for  dozens 
upon  dozens  of  dentifrices  that  have  been  recommended  by  as 
many  different  individuals  who  have  prepared  them,  did  I  think 
you  would  be  benefitted  by  such  a  rehearsal.  It  may  not  be 
amiss,  however,  to  give  a  list  of  the  various  substances  which 
enter  into  their  combination.  I  will  name  them  alphabetically  : 
alum,  bole  Armen.,  ashes  of  tobacco,  ammonia  mur.,  borax,  bone 
dust,  bark,  red,  pale,  and  yellow,  Quillia  bark,  bismuth,  benzine, 
chalk,  charcoal,  cuttle  fish,  camphor,  catechu,  cochineal,  carmine, 
cardamoms,  cinnamon,  cloves,  cream  of  tartar,  coral,  dragon's 
blood,  galls,  gaultheria,  guaiac,  honey,  krameria,  kino,  lime, 
magnesia,  myrrh,  orris  root,  oyster  shell,  pellitory,  pumice-stone, 
soap,  white  and  Castile,  soda,  salt,  sugar,  red  sanders,  red  earth, 
rose  pink,  tannin. 
Some  of  these  substances  are  but  seldom  used,  and  many  others 
are  of  little  account.  The  most  popular  substances,  or  those  in 
common  use  for  powder,  are  orris  root,  yellow  bark,  gum  myrrh, 
chalk,  and  soap.  These  few  articles,  combined  in  various  pro- 
portions, probably  form  the  substance  of  at  least  two-thirds  of  all 
the  tooth-powder  used. 
Tooth  pastes  are  usually  composed  of  orris  root,  pumice,  chalk, 
etc.,  combined  with  honey.  A  once  famous,  but  repulsive  look- 
ing compound,  was  charcoal  and  honey ;  and  it  worked  wonders 
in  its  own  peculiar  way,  as  we  shall  presently  see.  The  most 
popular  lotions  are  of  the  saponaceous  order  and  highly  flavored. 
The  old  order  of  mouth-washes  were  generally  composed  of  tinc- 
ture of  myrrh,  bark,  camphor,  etc.  The  everlasting  sozodont, 
which  is  advertised  on  every  fence  and  rock  for  fifty  miles  around 
us,  is  supposed  to  be  an  aromatic  tincture  of  Quillia  saponaria, 
or  soap  bark,  from  an  evergreen  tree  growing  in  Chili.  Of  course 
I  cannot  say  positively  that  it  is  such.  However,  a  very  nice 
lotion  may  be  prepared  from  this  bark  ;  but  just  allow  me  to  say 
at  this  point  that  pure,  sweet  soap  is  fully  equal  to  any  fluid 
preparation  that  has  ever  been  prepared  for  cleansing  the  teeth. 
But  soap  alone  is  not  all  that  we  desire.  It  has  not  sufficient 
body  for  a  perfect  dentifrice.  The  same  may  be  said  of  all  fluid 
preparations. 
