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218 DENTAL MEDICINE.

It will also correct fetor of the breath arising from carious
teeth, smoking, etc., acting as a deodorizer.
In all fetid discharges from the mouth, throat, etc., carbolic
acid, combined with glycerine or an aqueous solution, may be
used with advantage. The pure acid is employed for bathing
cavities in teeth, preparatory to the introduction of the filling
material, for its effect on sensitive or softened dentine and low
organisms, although other agents prove more effective as ger-
micides. Carbolic acid, combined with glycerine and rose
water, forms an antiseptic mouth-wash ; and when prepared
chalk is added to the combination, it forms a tooth-paste.
For use as a disinfectant, the form of carbolic acid which
contains about ninety-four per cent, of the pure acid and
known as "carbolic acid No. 4," is the best, and it may be used
as an antiseptic in the following strength : for lotions or
sponges, ly^ per cent, in water; for spray or vapor, 5 per cent,
in water; for a dressing, 5 per cent, in olive oil. Carbolate of
potash (unofficial—Robinson's remedy) is composed of equal
parts of carbolic acid and caustic potassa rubbed together; it is
employed in pyorrhoea alveolaris and hyper-sensitive dentine.
Carbolic acid one-third and potassa fusa two-thirds is escharotic,
anaesthetic, obtundent and disinfectant ; such a combination
causes a definite slough, and is useful in suppurating surfaces,
sloughing ulcers and dead tissue.
Synthetic Carbolic Acid. — Hitherto all carbolic acid used in
medicine has been prepared from coal-tar. But such an acid is
never quite pure, always containing impurities derived from the
coal-tar. Synthetic carbolic acid is produced during the process
of sulphonizing benzol and subsequent fusion of the benzol-
sulphonate with caustic alkali. The most characteristic, differ-
ence between it and the acid prepared from coal-tar is the odor,
the synthetic acid having a faint " pure " odor not like that of
coal-tar, and almost unperceivable in a per cent, aqueous
5
solution, differing in this respect also from the commercial
article. Synthetic carbolic acid is in two forms— in a coherent
crystalline mass, and in loose crystals. Experiments made bv
Dr. Ohlmueller, of the German Health Department, showed