Part 128

=DENGUE.= This disease is most commonly met with in the East and West Indies, and occasionally as an epidemic in America. In England it rarely shows itself in an epidemic character. The symptoms of dengue appear to combine those of rheumatism and scarlet fever. On the third or fourth day an eruption shows itself, accompanied with pains in the limbs, glandular swellings, and languor. The course of the disease is varied by frequent remissions. It does not come within our design to indicate the treatment, which appears to be the same as that pursued in scarlet fever.

=DENS'ITY.= Comparative masses of equal weights, or the quantity of matter contained in a given space. It is commonly used synonymously with SPECIFIC GRAVITY, which, however, refers to comparative weights of equal bulks. Thus, quicksilver is said to have a density greater than that of copper, and alcohol one less than that of oil of vitriol.

=DENTI'FRICES.= _Syn._ DENTIFRICIA, L. Substances applied to the teeth, to cleanse and beautify them. The most useful form of dentifrices is that of powder (TOOTH POWDER); but liquids (TOOTH WASHES), and electuaries (TOOTH ELECTUARIES, TOOTH PASTES), are also employed. The solid ingredients used in dentifrices should not be so hard or gritty as to injure the enamel of the teeth; nor so soft or adhesive as to adhere to the gums, after rinsing the mouth out with water. Pumice-stone (in fine powder) is one of those substances that acts entirely by mechanical attrition, and is hence an objectionable ingredient in tooth powder intended for daily use. It is, however, very generally present in the various advertised dentifrices, which are remarkable for their rapid action in whitening the teeth. Bath brick is another substance of a similar nature to pumice, and, like that article, should be only occasionally employed. Cuttle-fish bone, coral, and prepared chalk, are also commonly used for the same purpose, but the last is rather too soft and absorbent to form the sole ingredient of a tooth powder. Charcoal, which is so very generally employed as a dentifrice, acts partly mechanically and partly by its chemical property of destroying foul smells and arresting putrefaction. For this purpose it should be newly burnt, and kept in well-closed vessels, until used, as by exposure to the air it rapidly loses its antiseptic powers. Powdered rhatany, cinchona bark, and catechu, are used as astringents, and are very useful in foulness or sponginess of the gums. Myrrh and mastic are employed on account of their odour, and their presumed preservative action and power of fixing loose teeth. Insoluble powders have been objected to on account of their being apt to accumulate between the folds of the gums and in the cracks of the teeth, and thus impart a disagreeable appearance to the mouth. To remedy this defect, a reddish or flesh-coloured tinge is commonly given to them with a little rose pink, red coral, or similar colouring substance, when any small portion that remains unwashed off is rendered less conspicuous. Some persons employ soluble substances as tooth powders, which are free from the above objection. Thus, sulphate of potash and cream of tartar are used for this purpose, because of the grittiness of their powders and their slight solubility in water. Phosphate of soda and common salt are also frequently employed as dentifrices, and possess the advantage of being readily removed from the mouth by means of a little water. Among those substances that chemically decolour and remove unpleasant odours, the only ones employed as dentifrices are charcoal and the chlorides of lime and soda. The first has been already noticed; the others may be used by brushing the teeth with water to which a very little of their solutions has been added. A very weak solution of chloride of lime is commonly employed by smokers to remove the odour and colour imparted by tobacco to the teeth. Electuaries, made of honey and astringent substances, are frequently employed in diseases of the gums. The juice of the common strawberry has been recommended as an elegant natural dentifrice, as it readily dissolves the tartarous incrustations on the teeth, and imparts an agreeable odour to the breath. See PASTE and POWDER (Tooth), also WASHES (Mouth).

=DENT'INE.= The tissue of which the teeth are composed.

=DENTISTRY.= The art or practice of a dentist. Directions for the extraction of teeth, as well as elaborate details for stopping them, and for the manufacture of artificial ones, are branches of the dentist's art, which, as they necessitate the exercise of considerable skill and long practice, do not call for notice in a work like the present. We shall confine ourselves, therefore, to that section of dentistry which concerns itself with stoppings for the cavities of decayed teeth, and for the preparation of which we give the following formulæ:--

1. (Soubeiran's.) Powdered mastic and sandarach, of each 4 dr.; dragon's blood, 2 dr.; opium, 15 gr.; mix with sufficient rectified spirit to form a stiff paste. A solution of mastic, or of mastic and sandarach, in half the quantity of alcohol, is also used, applied with a little cotton or lint.

2. Sandarach, 12 parts; mastic, 6 parts; amber, in powder, 1 part; ether, 6 parts. Applied with cotton. Or simply a paste of powdered mastic and ether. Or a saturated ethereal solution of mastic, applied with cotton.

3. Taveare's cement is made with mastic and burnt alum. Bernoth directs 20 parts of powdered mastic to be digested with 40 of ether, and enough powdered alum added to form a stiff paste.

4. Gutta percha, softened by heat, is recommended. Dr Rollfs advises melting a piece of caoutchouc at the end of a wire, and introducing it while warm.

5. (Gauger's Cement.) Put into a quart bottle 2 oz. of mastic and 3 oz. of absolute alcohol; apply a gentle heat by a water-bath. When dissolved, add 9 oz. of dry balsam of tolu, and again heat gently. A piece of cotton dipped in this viscid solution becomes hard when introduced into the tooth, previously cleansed and dried as above.

6. (Mr Robinson's.) After washing out the mouth with warm water containing a few grains of bicarbonate of soda, and cleaning the cavity as above directed, he drops into it a drop of collodion, to which a little morphia has been added, fills the cavity with asbestos and saturates with collodion, placing over all a pledget of blotting paper.

7. (Ostermaier's Cement.) Mix 12 parts of dry phosphoric acid with 13 of pure and pulverised quicklime. It becomes moist in mixing, in which state it is introduced into the cavity of the tooth, where it quickly becomes hard. [In some hands this has failed, from what cause we are not aware.] The acid should be prepared as directed under ACID, PHOSPHORIC.

8. (Silica.) This name has been given to a mixture of Paris plaster, levigated porcelain, iron filings, and dregs of tincture of mastic, ground together.

9. (Wirih's Cement.) It is said to consist of a viscid alcoholic solution of resins, with powdered asbestos.

10. (Metallic Cement.) Amalgams for the teeth are made with gold or silver, and quicksilver, the excess of the latter being squeezed out, and the stiff amalgam used warm. Inferior kinds are made with quicksilver and tin, or zinc. A popular nostrum of this kind is said to consist of 40 gr. of quicksilver and 20 of fine zinc filings, mixed at the time of using. Mr Evans states that pure tin, with a small portion of cadmium, and sufficient quicksilver, forms the most lasting and least objectionable amalgam. The following is the formula:--Melt 2 parts of tin with 1 of cadmium, run it into ingots, and reduce it to filings. Form these into a fluid amalgam with mercury, and squeeze out the excess of mercury through leather. Work up the solid residue in the hand, and press it into the tooth. Or, melt some beeswax in a pipkin over the fire, throw in 5 parts of cadmium, and, when melted, add 7 or 8 parts of tin in small pieces; pour the melted metals into an iron or wooden box, and shake them till cold, so as to obtain the alloy in a powder. This is mixed with 2-1/2 or 3 times its weight of quicksilver in the palm of the hand, and used as above.

Another cement consists of about 73 parts of silver, 21 of tin, and 6 of zinc, amalgamated with quicksilver. An amalgam of copper is said to be sometimes used. But this class of stoppings is altogether disapproved of by other authorities. Pure leaf-gold seems the least objectionable.

11. (Marmoratum.) Finely levigated glass, mixed with tin amalgam.

12. (Poudre Metallique.) The article sold under this name in Paris appears to be an amalgam of silver, mercury, and ammonium, with an excess of mercury, which is pressed out before using it.

13. (Fusible Metal.) Melt together 8 parts of bismuth, 5 of lead, 3 of tin, and 1-1/2 or 1·6 of quicksilver, with as little heat as possible. (Chaudet.)

14. (Non-expensive Metallic Tooth-stopping.) Take 1 part of sulphate of mercury, 1 part of copper in fine powder; rub them well together with a little warm water; when the amalgam is formed wash well, and remove the surplus of mercury by pressing it through chamois.--_Pharm. Journ._

EXPENSIVE METALLIC TOOTH-STOPPING AND MUCH PREFERABLE. Take pure gold, pure gelatin, 1 part of each; pure silver, 2 parts; melt, and when refrigerated, reduce to a powder by means of a file; wash well and dry. In the moment of using it add sufficient mercury to form a plastic paste.--_Pharm. Journ._

PASTE FOR DESTROYING THE SENSIBILITY OF THE DENTAL PULP PREVIOUS TO STOPPING. Arsenious acid, 30 gr.; sulphate of morphia, 20 gr.; creasote, q. s. [Unsafe; it is only inserted by way of warning against what may prove an unsuspected cause of mischief.]

PIVOTS FOR ARTIFICIAL TEETH. An alloy of platinum and silver.

SPRINGS FOR ARTIFICIAL TEETH. Equal parts of copper, silver, and palladium. (Chaudet.)

For Cachou Aromatisé, and other compounds for sweetening the breath, see PERFUMERY.

=DENTI'TION.= See TEETHING.

=DEOB'STRUENT.= In medicine, a substance which removes obstructions, and opens the natural passages of the fluids of the body, as the pores, lacteals, and glands. Iodine, mercury, sarsaparilla, and aperients, are deobstruents.

=DEO'DORISER.= Any substance having the power of absorbing or destroying fetid effluvia. Chlorine, chloride of lime, chloride of zinc, nitrate of lead, sulphate of iron, and freshly-burnt charcoal, are the most effective and convenient deodorisers. Peat charcoal has been highly recommended for deodorising manure, &c., on the large scale. When it is mixed with these substances their fetor is immediately destroyed, and a compost produced, which may be substituted for guano for agricultural purposes. 'Biedermann's Centralblatt für Agricultur Chemie' for June, 1877, contains the results of some experiments undertaken by A. Eckstein on the comparative deodorising values of certain substances. Herr Eckstein found that 1 kilo of copperas dissolved in water destroyed the stench of sulphuretted hydrogen in a privy used daily by at least 100 persons. The action ceased after twelve hours. A solution of aqueous sulphate of copper produced a similar result. When 1 kilo of solid copperas was employed the action lasted for two days. The same result was obtained by using 1 kilo of a mixture compound of copperas, sulphate of copper, and carbonate of lime. Liquid sulphurous acid was found to act very rapidly, rendering the atmosphere difficult to breathe for an hour; its action ceased after twenty-three hours. Crude carbolic acid, which was used to the extent of 30 grams, gave so unpleasant a smell for two days as to render the result impossible to be arrived at. One kilo of copperas enclosed in a bag of parchment paper only began to act after two hours, and kept the place odourless for two days. One kilo of good chloride of lime, placed in a similar bag, did not lose its effect for nine days. With 60 grams of permanganate of soda the action commenced immediately, but the effect was over in twenty-four hours; when enclosed in parchment paper it was efficacious for two days. In Herr Eckstein's opinion the most powerful deodoriser known is chloride of lime along with sulphuric acid. Powdered gypsum is a good absorber of ammonia, and for this purpose may be sprinkled over the floors of stables, manure heaps, &c. See DISINFECTANT.

=DEOX'IDATION.= See REDUCTION.

=DEPIL'ATORY.= A cosmetic employed to remove superfluous hairs from the human skin. Depilatories act either mechanically (MECHANICAL DEPILATORIES), or chemically (CHEMICAL DEPILATORIES). To the first class belong adhesive plasters, that, on their removal from the skin, bring away the hair with them. The second class includes all those substances which destroy the hair by their chemical action.

Lime or orpiment, and generally both of them, have formed the leading ingredients in depilatories, both in ancient and modern times. The first acts by its well-known causticity, and also, when an alkali is present, by reducing that also, either wholly or in part, to the caustic state. The action of the orpiment is of a less certain character, and its use is even dangerous when applied to a highly sensitive or an abraded surface. The addition of starch is to render the paste more adhesive and manageable.

In using the following preparations, those which are in the state of powder are mixed up with a little warm water to the consistence of a paste, and applied to the part. Sometimes soap lye is used for this purpose, and some persons spread the pulpy mass on a piece of paper, and apply it like a plaster. In 12 or 15 minutes, and sooner, if much smarting ensues, the whole should be washed off with warm water, and a little cold cream, lip-salve, or spermaceti cerate, applied to the part. The application of the liquid preparations is generally accompanied with gentle friction, care being taken to prevent them extending to the adjacent parts. All the following effect the object satisfactorily, with proper management; but some are much more effective than others. A small wooden or bone knife is the best for mixing them with. They must all be kept in well-stoppered bottles, and no liquid must be added to them until shortly before their application; and then no more should be mixed than is required for immediate use.

=Depilatory, Arsen'ical.= Orpiment (sulphide of arsenic) forms the principal ingredient in many fashionable depilatories, but its use is not free from danger. The following are well-known preparations:

1. (COLLEY'S D.) From nitre and sulphur, of each 1 part; orpiment, 3 parts; quicklime, 8 parts; soap lees, 32 parts; boil to the consistence of cream. Very caustic.

2. (DELCROIX'S D.; 'POUDRE SUBTILE,') Orpiment, 1 oz.; quicklime, 10 oz.; starch, 14 oz.

3. (ORIENTAL D.; ORIENTAL RUSMA.)--_a._ Quicklime, 3 oz.; orpiment, 1/2 dr.; strong alkaline lye, 1 lb.; boil together in a clean iron vessel until a feather dipped into the liquor loses its flue.

_b._ From pearlash, 2 oz.; orpiment, 3 dr.; liquor of potassa, 1/2 pint; boil together as before. One of the most caustic and consequently the most certain of depilatory preparations; but, with the rest of its class, open to the objections of containing orpiment. (See No. 7.)

4. (PASTE D.; 'PÂTE ÉPILATOIRE,') To No. 1 add of orris root, 3 parts.

5. (PLENCK'S D.; 'PASTA EPILATORIA,') Orpiment, 1 part; quicklime and starch, of each 12 parts.

6. (SOAP D.; 'SAVON ÉPILATOIRE,') Turkish depilatory and soft soap, equal parts. Must not be mixed until about to be applied. (See No. 7.)

7. (TURKISH D.; TURKISH RUSMA.) Orpiment, 1 part; quicklime, 9 parts. For use, it is mixed up with soap lees, and a little powdered starch.

=Depilatory, Boettger's.= Powdered sulphydrate of sodium, one part; washed chalk, three parts; made into a thick paste with a little water. Let a layer about the thickness of the back of a knife be spread upon the hairy surface. After two or three minutes the stoutest hairs are transformed into a soft mass which may be removed by water. A more prolonged action would attack the skin.

=Depilatory, Boudet's.= _Prep._ Sulphide of sodium (crystallised), 3 parts; quicklime (in fine powder), 10 parts; starch, 10 parts; mix. To be mixed with water, and applied to the skin, and scraped off in 2 or 3 minutes with a wooden knife. Very effective and safe.

=Depilatory, Cazenave's.= _Syn._ MAHON'S D.; POMMADE ÉPILATOIRE DE CAZENAVE, Fr. _Prep._ Quicklime, 1 part; carbonate of soda, 2 parts; lard, 8 parts; mix. Applied as an ointment.

=Depilatory, Chi'nese.= _Prep._ 1. Quicklime, 8 oz.; pearlash (dry) and liver of sulphur, of each 1 oz.; all reduced to a fine powder; mixed, and kept in a close bottle.

2. (ROSEATE D.) As No. 1., but coloured with a little rose pink or light red.

These preparations are applied in the same manner as Boudet's Depilatory.

=Depilatory, Colley's.= See DEPILATORY, ARSENICAL.

=Depilatory, Hydrosulphate of Lime.= _Prep._ (Beasley.) Mix quicklime and water to a thick cream, and pass into the mixture 25 or 30 times its volume of sulphuretted hydrogen gas. When the gas ceases to be absorbed, stop the process. The pulpy mass is spread on paper, and applied for 12 or 15 minutes. It is very effective, but has a most disgusting smell. Spolasco's depilatory is a very similar preparation (see _below_).

=Depilatory, Mechan'ical.= _Syn._ DEPILATORY PLASTEE. _Prep._ From pitch and resin, equal parts, melted together and spread on leather. Applied as a plaster.

=Depilatory, Rayer's.= _Prep._ Quicklime, 2 oz.; salt of tartar, 4 oz.; charcoal, 1/4 oz. Less active than Chinese Depilatory.

=Depilatory, Redwood's.= _Prep._ A strong solution of sulphide of barium, made into a paste with powdered starch, and applied immediately. Mr Redwood says this is "the best and safest depilatory."

=Depilatory, Ro'seate.= See DEPILATORY, CHINESE.

=Depilatory, Spolasco's.= _Prep._ Freshly prepared sulphide of calcium and quicklime, equal parts. Almost equal to Redwood's (_above_).

=DEPOSI'TION (of Metals).= See ELECTRO-TYPE.

=DERBY CONDITION POWDERS= (J. Tobias Simpson, New York). Celebrated as a safe, infallible, and speedy remedy for glanders, coughs, colds, over feeding, worms, mouth disease, and loss of horns or hair, in horses and other valuable domestic animals. Tartar emetic, 2 grammes; black antimony, 20 grammes; sulphur, 10 grammes; nitre, 10 grammes; fenugreek, 40 grammes; juniper berries, 20 grammes. (Schädler.)

=DER'BYSHIRE NECK.= See GOITRE.

=DERMASOT= (Apotheker Bertschinger, Baden, Switzerland). For profuse perspiration of the feet. Consists of acetate of alumina, 7·5 grammes; distilled water, 120 grammes; butyric ether, 2 drops; rosanilin to colour it slightly. (Weber.)

=DESBRIERRE'S CHOCOLATE A LA MAGNESIE.= 44 grammes of chocolate paste and 15 grammes of calcined magnesia, made into two tablets. (Reveil.)

=DESIC'CANTS.= _Syn._ DESICCAN'TIA, L. In _pharmacology_, substances that check secretion and dry sores of abraded surfaces, without acting as styptics, or constringing the fibres of the parts to which they are applied. See ASTRINGENTS.

=DESICCA'TION.= _Syn._ EXSICCA'TION. The evaporation or drying off of the aqueous portion of solid bodies. Plants and chemical preparations are deprived of their humidity by exposure to the sun, a current of dry air, an atmosphere rendered artificially dry by sulphuric acid, or by the direct application of heat by means of a water bath, a sand bath, or a common fire. Planks and timber are now seasoned, on the large scale, in this way, by which a condition may be produced, in 2 or 3 days, which on the old system is barely attainable in as many years. "Endeavours were made to enforce the importance and value of the desiccation of woods to the builder, cabinet maker, architect, and civil engineer, so long back as 1843, but without success. Since that period certain persons have availed themselves, commercially, of our ideas and experiments on the subject, without any acknowledgment, either verbal or pecuniary." (Cooley.)

=DESTEM'PER.= _Syn._ DISTEMPER. Colours ground up with size, gum, or white of egg, and water, as in scene painting. The art of executing work in distemper is called 'distemper painting.'

=DETER'GENT.= An agent having the power of removing offensive matter from the skin. The name is now generally restricted to applications that tend to cleanse foul wounds and ulcers.

=Detergent, Collier's.= _Prep._ From liquor of potassa, 2 fl. dr.; rose water, 5-1/2 fl. oz.; spirit of rosemary, 1/2 fl. oz.; mix. One of the best applications known to free the head from scurf, when the hair is strong and healthy. The head should be afterwards sponged with clean, soft water.

=DETONA'TION.= See FULMINATING COMPOUNDS.

=DEUTOX'IDE.= See OXIDES.

=DEUTSCHE SIEGESTROPFEN--German Triumphal Drops= (Schmidt). 480 grammes of a brown fluid with an agreeably sweet spirituous and aromatic taste, containing in a hundred parts five parts of the portion soluble in weak spirit of cloves and orange peel, 29 parts sugar, 36 parts alcohol, and 30 parts water. (Wittstein.)

=DEW-POINT.= The temperature at which dew begins to form, as observed by a thermometer. It varies with the humidity of the atmosphere.

=DEX'TRIN.= C_{6}H_{10}O_{5}. _Syn._ STARCH GUM, DEXTRINA, DEXTRINUM, BRITISH GUM. A soluble substance resembling gum, formed by the action of dilute acids at the boiling temperature, and by infusion of malt, at about 160° Fahr., on starch. It is also formed when potato starch and some of the other farinas are exposed to a heat of about 400°. See DIASTASE and GUM (British).

=DEX'TRO-RACE'MIC ACID.= See RACEMIC ACID.

=DIABE'TES.= See URINE.

=Diabetes (Saccharine).= The symptoms observed in this generally fatal ailment are the passing of an excessive quantity of pale, straw-coloured urine, of high specific gravity, containing more or less grape sugar; great thirst and hunger, obstinate dyspepsia, constipation, an unpleasant odour from the feet, or perspiration of the arm-pits, and bodily debility, and emaciation. All these symptoms vary in intensity according to the course and duration of the disease, which is frequently accompanied with hectic fever, cough, and sometimes carbuncles, and generally ends in consumption or some organic disease. The flow of urine sometimes reaches as much as eight gallons in 24 hours; the average quantity, however, is about two gallons. The specific gravity of the urine varies between 1030 and 1070. The quantity of sugar excreted in the twenty-four hours differs greatly, ranging from half a pound to three pounds.

In the treatment of diabetes, great attention should be paid to diet, which should consist principally of digestible, broiled, or roasted meat, gluten and bran bread (these latter being substituted for ordinary bread, which with sugar must be especially avoided), liquids in moderate quantity, of which the most preferable are weak beef tea or mutton broth. If the thirst is extreme, it is best assuaged by drinking water acidulated with phosphoric acid. Spirituous liquids as well as saline aperients should be eschewed. Claret is, however, a suitable beverage.

Small doses of laudanum, given three or four times a day, have been found of great service.

Dr Watson recommends also the administration of creosote. The bowels must be regulated by means of mild aperients. Warm baths are also of use, as they augment the secretion of the skin. The disease may be kept under by administering from twenty to forty minims of tincture of perchloride of iron, 3 times a day. The above treatment is inserted for the guidance only of emigrants and others unable to obtain professional aid; wherever this can be obtained, no time should be lost in seeking it. This is the more important, since the earlier the patient has recourse to the proper remedies, the greater are the chances of recovery.