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 fmer 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; Ist. 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 case 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 mixed 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 claimminess, 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: - prepared charcoal may perhaps be good: simple charcoal certainly is good: - prepared charcoal, if adulterated, may injure the teeth and gums: the simple cannot. In a word, exclusive of the very material difference of price, the siinple charcoal, in several points of view, claims a decided preference to the prepared charcoal, and to every other dentifrice.

There are, I grant, some chemical preparations (and I could myself name two or three) which

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-more 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 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.

Powdered Myrrh, one ounce.
Jesuits' Bark, powdered, one

1

the stronger you can use it, the better. Take a table-spoonful of this diluted mixture into your mouth: keep it there as long as you can, all the time working it about with the tongue, to wash the gums. Repeat this operation as often as convenient; and you will soon have reason to congratulate yourself on its beneficial effects. - Do not rinse with water after it; but let the flavor continue 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 morning: 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. - Dry these pieces without further ceremony, and use them, as above directed. - Their want of roundness cannot, I apprehend, be productive of any inconvenience: 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 aecount of its blackness, may employ any one of the mixtures above mentioned, and 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.

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 thread, or encircling them with wire, somewhat after the fashion of the military brush for cleaning the pan of the musket.

a

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

your humble servant, and
constant reader,

S***** W*****

NAUTICAL ANECDOTE.

[As the following Anecdote (from Dr. CAREY's Moral Tale for Youth, en titled Learning better than House and Land') conveys a piece of information which may be useful to Ladies or Gen

D