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472 DENTAL MEDICINE.
Fragrant and Antiseptic Mouth Wash.
Dr. a. W. Harlan.
Saffrol 360 min
R .
Oil of pinus pomilia 120 min
Oil of curacoa 120 min
Oil of vetivert 6 drops
Oilof wintergreen 24 drops
Oil of anise, Saxony • • . . . 6 drops
Oil of rose geranium, A f. 6 drops
Naphthol 60 grs
Deodorized alcohol 24 f. oz
Solution of saccharine ^ f. oz
. ,
Glycerine 8 f. oz
Purified talcum 2 troy oz. M
NITROUS OXIDE—PROTOXIDE OF NITROGEN.
LAUGHING GAS.
Formula.—NjO. Sp. gr. compared with air is about 1.6.
Derivation.—The discovery of Nitrous Oxide Gas was made
by Dr. Priestly in 1776, and scientific investigation demonstra-
ting its respirability, by Sir Humphrey Davy, the results of which
were published some twenty years afterward. To Dr. Horace
Wells, a dentist of Hartford, Connecticut, is due the credit of
having demonstrated its property as an anaesthetic agent for the
relief of pain during surgical operations, in the year 1844.
Nitrous oxide is obtained by heating the salt nitrate of am-
monia in a glass retort until it melts, and then boils, dissolving
into a vapor of water and into a permanent gas. The salt
nitrate of ammonia is obtained in three forms—the crystallized,
the granulated and the fused. The fused form is prepared by
melting the crystallized nitrate of ammonia, and allowing it to
solidify on cooling ; the granulated is prepared by evaporating the
solution to a density sufficient to solidify on cooling, and agitating
the mass until it becomes cool.
As it is very important to use a pure form of the nitrate of
ammonia in the generation of nitrous oxide gas, the salt, either in
the fused or granulated state, may be tested by heating it on
platinum, when the nitrate, if pure, should volatilize perfectly.
It may also be tested by a few drops of chloride of barium, which