Care of the Teeth.—The mouth has a temperature of 98 degrees, warmer than is ever experienced in the shade in the latitude of New England. It is well known that if beef, for example, be exposed in the shade during the warmest of our summer days, it will very soon decompose. If we eat beef for dinner, the particles invariably find their way into the spaces between the teeth. Now, if these particles of beef are not removed, they will frequently remain till they are softened by decomposition. In most mouths this process of decomposition is in constant progress. Ought we to be surprised that the gums and teeth against which these decomposing or putrefying masses lie should become subjects of disease?
How shall our teeth be preserved? The answer is very simple—keep them very clean. How shall they be kept clean? Answer—By a toothpick, rinsing with water, and the daily use of a brush.
The toothpick should be a quill, not because the metalic picks injure the enamel, but because the quill pick is so flexible it fits into all the irregularities between the teeth. Always after using the toothpick the mouth should be thoroughly rinsed. If warm water be not at hand, cold may be used, although warm is much better. Closing the lips, with a motion familiar to all, everything may be thoroughly rinsed from the mouth.
Every morning (on rising), and every evening (on going to bed), the tooth-brush should be used, and the teeth, both outside and inside, thoroughly brushed.
Much has been said pro and con., upon the use of soap with the tooth-brush. My own experience and the of members of my family is highly favorable to the regular morning and evening use of soap. Castile or other good soap will answer this purpose. (Whatever is good for the hands and face is good for the teeth.) The slightly unpleasant taste which soap has when we begin to use it will soon be unnoticed.
Tooth Powders.—Many persons, while laudably attentive to the preservation of their teeth, do them harm by too much officiousness. They daily apply to them some dentifrice powder, which they rub so hard as not only to injure the enamel by excessive friction, but to hurt the gums even more than by the abuse of the toothpick. The quality of some of the dentifrice powders advertised in newspapers is extremely suspicious, and there is reason to think that they are not altogether free from a corrosive ingredient. One of the safest and best compositions for the purpose is a mixture of two parts of prepared chalk, one of Peruvian bark, and one of hard soap, all finely powdered, which is calculated not only to clean the teeth without hurting them, but to preserve the firmness of the gums.
Besides the advantage of sound teeth for their use in mastication, a proper attention to their treatment conduces not a little to the sweetness of the breath. This is, indeed, often affected by other causes existing in the lungs, the stomach, and sometimes even in the bowels, but a rotten state of the teeth, both from the putrid smell emitted by carious bones and the impurities lodged in their cavities, never fails of aggravating an unpleasant breath wherever there is a tendency of that kind.
Remedies for Toothache.—1. One drachm of alum reduced to an impalpable powder, three drachms of nitrous spirits of ether—mix, and apply them to the tooth on cotton. 2. Mix a little salt and alum, equal portions, grind it fine, wet a little lock of cotton, fill it with the powder and put it in your tooth. One or two applications seldom fail to cure. 3. To one drachm of collodion add two drachms of Calvert's carbolic acid. A gelatinous mass is precipitated, a small portion of which, inserted in the cavity of an aching tooth, invariably gives immediate relief. 4. Saturate a small bit of clean cotton wool with a strong solution of ammonia, and apply it immediately to the affected tooth. The pleasing contrast immediately produced in some cases causes fits of laughter, although a moment previous extreme suffering and anguish prevailed. 5. Sometimes a sound tooth aches from sympathy of the nerves of the face with other nerves. But when toothache proceeds from a decayed tooth either have it taken out, or put hot fomentations upon the face, and hot drinks into the mouth, such as tincture of cayenne.
To Cure Warts.—Warts are formed by the small arteries, veins, and nerves united together, taking on a disposition to grow by extending themselves upward, carrying the scarf-skin along with them, which, thickening, forms a wart. Corns are a similar growth, brought about by the friction of tight boots and shoes. 1. Take a piece of diachylon plaster, cut a hole in the centre the size of the wart, and stick it on, the wart protruding through. Then touch it daily with aquafortis, or nitrate of silver. They may be removed by tying a string tightly around them. 2. Take a blacksmith's punch, heat it red hot and burn the warts with the end of it. When the burn gets well the warts will be gone forever. 3. Scrape down enough dry cobwebs to make a ball large enough to, or a little more than, cover the wart and not touch the flesh around the same; lay it on top of the wart, ignite it and let it be until it is all burnt up. The wart will turn white, and in a few days come out. 4. Pass a pin through the wart; apply one end of the pin to the flame of a lamp; hold it there until the wart fries under the action of the heat. A wart so treated will leave. 5. Dissolve as much common washing soda as the water will take up; wash the warts with this for a minute or two, and let them dry without wiping. Keep the water in a bottle and repeat the washing often, and it will take away the largest warts. 6. They may be cured surely by paring them down until the blood comes slightly and then rubbing them with lunar caustic. It is needless to say this hurts a little, but it is a sure cure. The hydrochlorate of lime applied in the same way will cure after several applications and some patience; so will strong good vinegar, and so it is said will milk weed. The cures founded upon superstitious practices, such as muttering some phrases over the excrescence, stealing a piece of beef, rubbing the wart therewith and then burying it under the leaves to await its decay, etc., etc., are all the remnants of a past state of ignorance and are of no use whatever. Warts are generally only temporary and disappear as their possessors grow up.
How to Cure White Swelling.—Draw a blister on the inside of the leg below the knee; keep it running with ointment made of hen manure, by simmering it in hog's lard with onions; rub the knee with the following kind of ointment: Bits of peppermint, oil of sassafras, checkerberry, juniper, one drachm each; simmer in one-half pint neatsfoot oil, and rub on the knee three times a day.