sufficiently fine, the charcoal is immediately fit for use: but, if the powder feel coarse and gritty, it may be rubbed still finer in a mortar. It is, however, hardly worth any person's while to take the trouble of preparing it, when it can be procured so cheap at every druggist's, and a quarter of a pound may be had for nine pence at Apothecaries' Hall.

As different druggists give to the charcoal different degrees of fineness, and some of them (perhaps unnecessarily) reduce it, by levigation, to an impalpable powder, it might be well to draw the following distinction between the fine and the coarse

Where there is question of scouring foul teeth, the coarser powder will be found more effectual: but, where the teeth are already perfectly clean, and only require to be kept clean and white, the finest powder will sufficiently answer the purpose. I should suppose, too, that the fier powder is more efficacious for whitening the teeth than the coarser, and for this simple reason - Since the contact of the charcoal with the teeth has the effect of whitening them, it necessarily follows, that, the more it comes into contact with them, the more speedily and effectually it will accomplish that object and it is evident, that, the finer the powder is, the greater portion of it will come into close contact with the teeth. There are also two other reasons for preferring the fine powder; 1st. that the coarse leaves an unpleasant roughness on the teeth, and might perhaps, in time, injure their enamel: 2d. that the coarse is apt to prove troublesome and disagreeable in the throat; which is not the ease with the fine.

As to what is called prepared charcoal,' and sold at a pretty high price, I have never heard it even pretended that it is one iota better than the simple; whereas, if it be adulterated, or imixed with other substances, it may probably be a great deal worse. I do not, indeed, pretend to say that it is or is not adulterated: but adulteration of every kind is now carried to such an extent, that, if any thing were to be gained by adulterating the very air - we breathe or the rain that falls from the clouds, none but a fool or a novice could doubt that modern ingenuity would contrive to adulterate the air itself, and the showers of heaven:-and why, then, should prepared charcoal be alone exempt from adulteration? Nay, even the common charcoal, cheap as it is, I suspect to be sometimes adulterated with soot: for a lady, upon whose veracity I can depend, has assured me, that, in the charcoal which she had purchased at certain shops, she found a sooty bitterness and clamminess, not discovered in the charcoal which she had either powdered at home, or procured from Apothecaries' Hall. In using prepared charcoal,' we know not what we use: in using simple charcoal, we do:

would whiten the teeth more expeditiously than charcoal: but those chemical whiteners never fail to injure the teeth, and most assuredly bring on premature decay; whereas the charcoal, if somewhat slower in its operation, of whitening, is perfectly safe, and, instead of producing rottenness, has a powerful effect in preventing it. There are also several powders, as coral-powder, &c. &c. which would more speedily scour off the stony incrustations from the teeth: but, if incautiously used, they are apt to injure the enamel on the clean parts of the teeth, besides galling and chafing the gums; whereas charcoal cannot do any harm to either, unless it be very rough rough, in truth, than any person would like to use it. Indeed, for the removal of stony incrustations, I would recommend, not the tedious and troublesome process of scouring with any powder, but an immediate application to a skilful dentist, who, at one short sitting, would scrape the teeth, render them perfectly clean, and

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leave their owner no further trouble than that of keeping them so in future, and gradually whitening them by the use of charcoal.

The only objection to the use of charcoal is, that it sometimes leaves a black mark between the tooth and the gum. But that inconvenience is easily remedied by the application of a clean brush and pure water: or, if water be not sufficient, the brush may be dipped in orris-root powder, or powdered myrrh. The former of these, a cheap article, constitutes the chief part of many of the tooth-powders prepared for sale; and, though perhaps useless in other respects,

is at least pleasant to the smell and taste; while the myrrh, besides being an agreeable bitter, is an excellent preservative against putrefaction, and a healer of the gums, which ought to be well rubbed with the myrrh-brush, after it has performed its office on the teeth.

If, however, any lady still object to the use of charcoal, I recommend to her the following mixture, which, though not equal to simple charcoal for whitening the teeth, is far superior, as a dentifrice, to most of the powders sold in the shops.

Prepared Oyster shells, powder-
ed, one ounce.
Charcoal-powder, halfan ounce.

the quantity of charcoal may be If this be thought too black, reduced to quarter of an ounce, at the expense, however, of rendering the powder less serviceable as a whitener; and, if yet too, dark-colored, the following mixture (still inferior in that respect) may be adopted —

Myrrh, one ounce.

Jesuits' Bark, one ounce.
Oyster-shells, one ounce.
Charcoal, two drachms.
Prepared Coral, very finely pow-

dered, quarter of an ounce,

To heal sore ulcerated gums, and preserve both them and the teeth, mix Tincture of Jesuits' Bark, and Tincture of Myrrh, in equal portions: to a spoonful of this mixture add three, four, or five spoonfuls of water, according as you choose it stronger or weaker: but

tinue in the mouth.

A loose tooth may, in many cases, be fastened by means of alum. Put a piece of alum into your mouth: keep it there during eight or ten minutes, moving the tongue to wash the gum about the loose tooth with the moisture produced by the alum. After this, rinse the mouth with pure water; and repeat the operation as often in the day as convenient. I know an elderly gentleman, who, about six or seven years ago, had three of his front teeth, so loose that he every day expected to lose them; but who, by this simple process, fastened them in a short time, and, to this day, feels them as firmly fixed in their sockets as ever they were. After the rinsing with water, it would be highly advantageous to use a mouthful of the Myrrh and Bark

wash above described.

Before I conclude, I must notice an ingenious contrivance of a young lady of my acquaintance, who, from peculiar circumstances, has not time to pay as much attention to her teeth as she would wish.

Mix one ounce of charcoal and half an ounce (or more) of powdered myrrh with as much strong gum-water as will make the mixture into a stiff paste. Make this paste into rolls about half or three

quarters of an inch in length, and about a quarter or three eighths of an inch in thickness. When dried and hardened, put one of these rolls between your teeth and lips at the time of rising in the inorning work it about with your tongue, while dressing: when nearly wasted away, crush the remainder very small by chewing; and, with your tongue, rub it forcibly against your teeth.-This operation, though not sufficient to keep the teeth in proper order without occasional brushing, will nevertheless be found very serviceable: and, without the trouble of making the paste into rolls, the business, I think, might be more simply, but equally well, managed thus-Spread the paste into one continued oblong cake, of the proper thickness, and half or three quarters of an inch broad: cut it across with a knife into pieces of fit size for the intended use-dipping the knife each time into dry charcoal powder, to prevent the paste from sticking to it.

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Dry these pieces without further ceremony, and use them, as above directed. Their want of roundness cannot, I apprehend, be productive of any inconveni ence and if, instead of half an ounce of myrrh, you employ a whole ounce, the rolls will be less apt to crumble too soon in using; and the myrrh itself, as before observed, is highly beneficial. -Here, too, as in the case of the powder, such of your readers as object to the pure charcoal on account of its blackness, may employ any one of the mixtures above mentioned, aud make it into rolls, to be used in the same manner and these might probably be made with water alone,

without gum; the myrrh, the oyster-shell, and the coral-powder, being all of a cohesive nature. The gum, used by the lady in question, is gum tragacanth (vulgarly called gum dragant and sometimes gum dragon) which she finds far superior to gum Arabic, for this as well as for almost every other purpose where gum is used as a cement; the gum tragacanth yielding a much larger quantity of mucilage than the other, and much stronger.

Another contrivance of the same young lady may also be worthy of notice. It is this - Mix an ounce of charcoal in half a pint or a pint of water in a bottle. At any convenient moment, (having first well shaken the bottle, to stir up the powder) take a mouthful of this mixture, and wash the teeth and gums with it, by means of the tongue alone, without the assistance of a brush; after which, rinse with pure water.-The whole of this twofold operation may be performed in two minutes; and it would be very useful after meals, particularly after sweets or acids. -The same process might be pursued with any of the mixed powders above mentioned.

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Let me add the description of a brush which may not improperly be called the everlasting tooth-brush-invented by the gentleman above mentioned, and admirably well calculated for cleaning between the teeth on the outside, as I know by experiencethe gentleman having favored-me with a present of one, which I have used these four years, and which will last me as long as I live. It consists of a straight silver tube, three inches long, and a little more than a quarter of an VOL. XLI.

inch in the inside diameter. The hair (a slender black bristle, better suited for tooth-brushes than the white hair commonly used) is drawn deep and tight into one end with a wire, and tapered with a pen-knife to a blunt point.-Such tubes may best be procured from a philosophical-instrument-maker: any brush-maker will draw in the hair for a few pence, and, when worn out, replace it with new thus, in fact, justifying the appellation that I have given it, of an everlasting tooth-brush-to which may be added this further commendation, that it is by far the cheapest tooth-brush that any person can use; the original cost of the tube not being above three shillings. And even that trifling expense may be saved by any economist, who (instead of using a tube) will take the trouble of binding the bristles tight together with a thread, or encircling them with wire, somewhat after the fashion of the military brush for cleaning the pan of the musket.

At length, Mr. Editor, I conclude this very prolix epistle, by respectfully subscribing myself, SIR,

your humble servant, and
constant reader,
S***** W*

January 2, 1810.
Wimpole Street,

tlemen going on sea-voyages, we doubt not that it will prove acceptable to many of our readers.]

THEY had not been many days at sea, when a remarkable mortality took place among the fowls which the cabin passengers had brought on board as provision for the voyage. But a circumstance, even more remarkable than the mortality itself, was, that the fowls always died in the night; hardly a night passing, which did not witness the death of one or two of their number.

When first these sudden deaths were announced, the passengers, influenced by that disgust which Englishmen habitually harbour against the flesh of any creature that has died of old age or disease, ordered the dead fowls to be thrown overboard: but the mate opportunely interposed to save them, observing to the gentlemen that common sailors were not over

6

and the cure.

Having accidentally overheard the conversation of two of the sailors, he clearly learned from it that they themselves designedly killed the fowls during the night, with the certain expectation of feasting on them at dinner the next day, as they well knew from experience that genteel cabin passengers would never consent to taste a fowl which they supposed to be tainted with disease: and the mate, it seems, was not only privy to the roguish scheme, but active, moreover, in promoting its success.

Although Thomas was a gainer by this knavish trick of the sailors, who allowed him a share of the fowls at dinner, yet his strong sense of honesty prompted him to impart this discovery to the cabin passengers, who thereupon held a private consultation, and formed a counter-scheme, to save the remainder of their fowls from those nocturnal depredators.

Pursuant to their pre-concerted plan-when next they were informed that two had died during the night, Gentlemen,' said Mr. Green to his fellow passengers in the hearing of the crew, it is well known that the Chinese unscrupulously feed on the flesh of animals that have died a natural death; nor do we learn that any harm or inconvenience ensues from the use of such food. What does