For an astringent, antiseptic, disinfectant and germicide in the mouth, there is nothing so convenient and quick acting as tincture iodin. I have used this drug as an astringent, antiseptic and disinfectant since 1878, but did not know of its germicidal properties until six years later, although I was obtaining the desired results of germ destruction.
Patients present themselves with fetor of the breath, pus about the teeth, inflamed gums, diseased alveolar processes, acid mucus and saliva, the latter being also ropy and stringy, plaques on the teeth and decay with all the forms of bacteria from the most harmless to the more dangerous pathogenic microorganisms such as the pneumococcus, diphtheria bacillus, tubercle bacillus and the germs of children's diseases. Miller has demonstrated more than fifty varieties of microorganisms in the mouth. Pus germs are often present in and about the necks of the teeth and easily infect wounds and