Siam benzoin, olibanum, and myrrh each 8¾ ozs., storax as free from water as possible 3½ ozs., licorice 17½ ozs., Peru balsam 3½ ozs., Frankfort black 5¼ ozs., bergamot oil 14 drachms, African rose-geranium oil, cassia oil, juniper-berry oil, and eucalyptus oil each 11¼ drachms.
[CHAPTER XI.]
DENTIFRICES, MOUTH-WATERS, ETC.
For cleansing and preserving the teeth and gums, soaps, powders, and tinctures are used, and for removing foul breath, mouth-waters.
Great care is required in compounding dentifrices and mouth-waters, and special attention must be paid to the correct selection of the material. The substances used must be chemically pure, and no caustic or sharp or grating materials, such as pumice, sand, ossa sepiæ, etc., should be employed, they destroying the enamel of the teeth.
The coloring substances used to give the dentifrices and mouth-waters a pleasing appearance should under no condition be injurious or poisonous, such as, for instance, brilliant rosa, cinnabar, aniline, chrome yellow, picric acid, etc. The perfumes have also to be carefully selected, and all repugnant volatile oils and tinctures, such as bitter-almond oil, sandal-wood oil, musk tincture, etc., should be avoided. On the other hand, peppermint oil forms the principal constituent of the perfume for most dentifrices and mouth-waters, this preference being not only due to its agreeable odor, but chiefly to its pleasant, refreshing, and stimulating action upon our organs.
In accordance with recent medical directions and opinions soap is again employed, and justly so, for the better cleansing of the teeth, whilst formerly it was generally considered injurious. However, though soap is innocuous to the teeth, it should be used in very limited quantities, since its introduction into the mouth is repugnant to many persons, producing in many cases vomiting. The quality of the soap must also be taken into consideration, and only the best neutral soap in the form of a powder, such as is used for fine milled soaps, should be employed.
The alcohol used for the tooth and mouth-waters—more correctly tinctures—should be perfectly free from fusel oil, and of 95 to 96 per cent. strength. The best qualities of volatile oils should be taken, and the tinctures prepared with the greatest care.