According to Scribonius Largus, toothache might also be taken away by fumigations of burnt bitumen. He affirms also that great benefit may be derived against odontalgia by masticating the wild mint, or the root of the pyrethrum, or by covering the diseased tooth with a plaster composed of peucedanum juice, opopanax, incense, and stoneless raisins. But before making use of this last remedy, he advises that the tooth and the gums near it should be fomented with very hot oil, by means of a toothpick or ear-picker wrapped around, at one end, with some wool. If the pain does not entirely cease, or comes on again, it is well, says the author, to continue the fomentations with hot oil, above the plaster, until the pain ceases. To strengthen loose teeth, Scribonius advises frequent rinsings of the mouth with asses’ milk or with wine in which have been cooked the roots of the sorrel until the liquid has boiled down to one-third. Another remedy which he recommends against looseness of the teeth is composed of honey and alum mixed together in a mortar, in the proportion of two parts of the first to one of the second, and then cooked in an earthen vase, so as to render the mixture more homogeneous, and to give it more consistency. He also speaks of a third medicament, resulting from cooking strong vinegar, alum, and cedria[172] in a copper vessel until it has the consistency of honey. This remedy would serve not only to make loose teeth firm, but the author assures us also that whoever rubs the teeth with it, three times a month, will never be subject to dental pains. Scribonius Largus gives the receipts for various dentifrice powders in use at that period. The skin of the radish dried in the sun, pounded to powder, and then passed through a sieve, would furnish a good dentifrice, suited to strengthen the teeth and to keep them healthy. Very white glass, similar to crystal, reduced to a very fine powder and mixed with spikenard, is also, according to Scribonius Largus, a valuable dentifrice. Octavia, sister of Augustus, used a powder which our author highly commends, saying that it strengthens the teeth and makes them very beautiful.[173] To prepare it, one must take a sextary[174] of barley flour and knead it well to a paste with vinegar and honey mixed together, and must divide the mass into six balls, each of which must be mixed with half an ounce of salt; these balls must then be cooked in the oven until carbonized; and lastly pounded to powder, as much spikenard being added as is necessary to give it an agreeable perfume. Scribonius Largus also lets us know the tooth powder made use of by Messalina, the wife of the Emperor Claudius; this was composed of calcined stag’s horn, mastic of Chios, and sal ammoniac, mixed in the proportion of an ounce of mastic and an ounce and a half of sal ammoniac to a sextary of the ashes of stag’s horn.