On Dental Pharmacy. [Volume: 2, Issue: 12, July, 1861, pp. 659-661]

ON DENTAL PHARMACY.

661

properties, either of color or taste, may be delicately flavored and made
agreeable to the eye. Charcoal, which is so highly recommended by
some, possesses but one merit-that of absorbing with great facility any
unpleasant or injurious secretions. It is, like all vegetable powders, objectionable from its complete insolubility and consequent tendency to form
the nucleus for deposits on the teeth. The common kinds of charcoal
have the further disadvantage of a coarseness of grain which is obviated
in betel-nut charcoal, and perhaps other kinds, especially popular in
England.
In the manufacture of tooth-washes, or rather mouth-washes, there is
considerable scope for ingenuity, always keeping in view the two objectscleansing the teeth and imparting a pleasant taste and odor to the mouth.
There is a class of drugs only lately coming into notice in this connection, which, with other qualities, combine a soapy and detergent property,
due to a peculiar vegetable frothing principle, called saponin, and its
analogues. The quillai bark, of South America, is used by the ladies
where it is known for the skin and hair. A West India plant believed to
contain saponin is also much sold in Jamaica, in small sticks, for cleaning
the teeth, the end being softened so as to resemble a brush. Our own
soap-wort, saponaria officinalis, probably contains the same principle,
and might be adapted to this use. A tincture of quillai I have found an
elegant basis for a tooth-wash, to be dropped on the brush, which, from
its frothing and cleansing properties, is universally popular where it is
known. A weaker preparation, with a rich flavor, to give the breath an
agreeable fragrance, to be used for rinsing the mouth after the free use of
the brush, is preferred by some. I know of no disadvantage resulting
from the pretty free use of such washes, and believe the additional cleanliness imparted by them to the teeth and mouth a positive advantage in
many instances.
Finally, do not dentists require a closer affiliation with pharmaceutists for mutual advantage and improvement, and should there not be a
recognized pharmaceutical specialty introduced into the arcana of dentistry? In their direct and constant intercourse with the public, and
practical familiarity with remedies and their modes of preparation and
modification, the "knights of the pestle and mortar" have many facilities
for serving the interests of dentists and for promoting the progress of
dental science.
PHILADELPHIA, June, 1861.
The above paper by Mr. Parrish is well timed, and is one of a kind
which is very useful to the dentist. We hope it will not be his last.
We greatly need contributors like him to dental journals. J. D. w.