553. _A safe Tooth-powder._--Cut a slice of thick bread into squares, and burn it till it becomes charcoal. Pound it, and sift it through a _fine_ muslin. It is then ready for use. 554. _Another Tooth-powder._--Mix hartshorn shavings, calcined and pulverized, three-fifths; myrrh, pulverized, two-fifths. 555. _A good Dentifrice._--Dissolve two ounces of borax in three pints of boiling water; before it is quite cold, add one tea-spoonful of tincture of myrrh, and one table-spoonful of spirits of camphor. Bottle the mixture for use. Add one wine-glassful of the solution to half a pint of tepid water, and use it daily. It preserves and beautifies the teeth, arrests decay, and induces a healthy action in the gums. 556. _Camphor Tooth-powder._--This excellent dentifrice is made by mixing prepared chalk, finely pulverized, and sifted through a fine muslin, with an equal quantity of pulverized camphor, prepared in the same way. It is a good preservative of the teeth. 557. _Orris-root Tooth-powder._--Mix equal quantities of finely pulverized and sifted orris-root and prepared chalk. Charcoal may be used instead of chalk, in both these receipts, but it must be prepared with great care, else its grittiness will injure the enamel of the teeth. 558. _To whiten the Teeth._--Mix honey with finely powdered charcoal, and use the paste as a dentifrice. 559. _Wash for the Teeth._--One ounce of myrrh, powdered, and dissolved in one pint of spirits of wine. A little of this dropped on the tooth-brush, is excellent for the teeth and gums. 560. _To remove Tartar from the Teeth._--1st. The use of the tooth-brush night and morning, and at least rinsing the mouth after every meal at which animal food is taken. 2d. Once daily run the brush lightly two or three times over soap, then dip it in salt, and with it clean the teeth, working the brush up and down rather than--or as well as--backwards and forwards. This is a cheap, safe, and effectual dentifrice. 3d. Eat freely of common cress--the sort used with mustard, under the name of small salad; it must be eaten with salt only. If thus used two or three days in succession, it will effectually loosen tartar, even of long standing. The same effect is produced, though perhaps not in an equal degree, by eating strawberries and raspberries, especially the former. A leaf of common green sage rubbed on the teeth, is useful both in cleansing and polishing, and probably many other common vegetable productions also. 561. _Obs._ Soap is not at all a desirable medium for cleaning the teeth, as, though it may whiten for the time, the alkaline process destroys the enamel.