Chewing gum

“ She will not eat peanuts or fruit or candy, or chew gum, in public places. In fact, I cannot imagine a really refined young lady chewing gum even in the privacy of her own room, so offensive is it to good taste. ”

“ In this regulation, "chewing gum" means the substance usually known as chewing gum, bubble gum or dental chewing gum, or any like substance prepared from a gum base of vegetable or synthetic origin and intended for chewing.
Penalty
3. Any person who contravenes regulation 2 shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $2,000. ”

“ In our own country not only do children bite pencils and pen-holders, but they will chew small pieces of india-rubber for hours together. The practice of gum-chewing, so common among our American cousins, evidently comes down from far-off [Pg 128] times, for the primitive Australians chew several kinds of gum, attributing to them nutrient qualities, [17] and the Patagonians are said to keep their teeth white and clean by chewing matri, a gum which exudes from the incense bush, and is carefully collected by the women and children. ”

“ The varieties of chewing gum that are manufactured would be a matter of surprise to those who have paid no attention to the subject, and who may suppose that the millions of mouths they see engaged in its mastication have a common and vulgar taste. ”

“ In other words, if you sit down to a meal after chewing gum for two or three hours, the saliva that you mix with your food will not have the normal digestive elements. One might say that the "strength" of the saliva has been lost while chewing gum.
If your teeth are decayed the offending members should be removed or the cavities filled. It is always wise to retain every tooth you can until extraction is practically compulsory. Decayed teeth should be filled promptly. As long as a tooth can be filled it should not be extracted. A good dentist should be consulted at frequent intervals. ”

“ Do not, however, depend upon the chewing of gum for hours each day as a means of exercising the teeth. Chewing a hard gum for a few minutes after a meal might be of advantage, but continual gum- chewing wastes and weakens the digestive elements of the saliva. ”

“ Of late, men have made fortunes in a year or two by exploiting chewing-gum, and defacing the landscape with the astounding announcement that gum is round. Who can resist buying gum that's round! At the same time chewing-gum types of education have been offered for sale in small packages. ”

“ It cannot strictly be said to soothe or to excite. The habit of using it differs totally from that of the chewing of tobacco or the dipping of snuff. It might, by a purely mechanical operation, keep a person awake, but no one could go to sleep chewing gum. It is in itself neither tonic nor sedative. It is to be noticed also that the gum habit differs from the tobacco habit in that the aromatic and elastic substance is masticated, while the tobacco never is, and that the mastication leads to nothing except more mastication. The task is one that can never be finished. ”

“ Of course you know it’s used in making some kinds of chewing gum for the girls.”
“Yes, and some boys are just as bad about using the stuff,” Bluff went on, in a scornful tone. It happened that he himself had recently graduated from the ranks of chewers.
“These fellows keep on the move pretty much all the year,” Frank told them. “A gum hunter has to cover his field about once in so often. He must have pretty good eyes, or he couldn’t discover where the sticky mass hangs on the side of tall trees. Some of them use field-glasses in their work, and I don’t blame them much.” ”

“ In a word, the gum-chewing Americans are trying to chew their cud as did their ancestors. Any habit like this is seized upon by [Pg 125] manufacturers for their personal profit, and every expedient is employed to induce people to chew. The gum is mixed with perfumes, and sold as a breath purifier; others mix it with pepsin, to aid the digestion; some with something else, which is sold on ships and excursion-boats as a cure or preventive for seasickness, all of which finds a large sale among the credulous Americans, who by a clever leader can be made to take up any fad or habit. ”

“ Manufacture.—The making of chewing gum is by no means the simple operation which it seems to be. Much experience in manipulation is necessary to succeed, and the published formulas can at best serve as a guide rather than as something to be absolutely and blindly followed. Thus, if the mass is either too hard or soft, change the proportions until it is right; often it will be found that different purchases of the same article will vary in their characteristics when worked up. But given a basis, the manufacturer can flavor and alter to suit himself. ”

“ The Pharmacopœia directs the use of powdered gum and of boiling water, whereas gum, in its ordinary condition or coarsely broken, and cold water make a clearer solution. Cold water is directed for the solution of the gum by the Edinburgh process, and in our present formula for “Syrup of Gum Arabic;”—if appropriate for the latter, it is quite as much so for the forming of mucilage. When the gum has been ground in a mill it appears to have been a little charred and forms a somewhat turbid solution; if powdered by hand, and rather more coarsely, its solution is clearer. ”

“ Starch and artificial gums always leave the cloth somewhat harsh in “feel” unless they are treated specially, and are moreover incapable of yielding the beautifully clear and perfectly even tints resulting from the use of natural gums. Very dark colours cannot well be obtained with gum senegal or gum arabic thickenings; they come away too much in washing, the um apparently preventing them from combining fully with the fibres. ”

“ If used at all, it would only do for the most common kind of work; but there is, in reality, no saving in an inferior article, as one pound of a really good sort will go as far as two of a bad, and produce a far more satisfactory result. Good gum ought to dissolve in cold water; it requires at least forty-eight hours soaking, being well stirred about at intervals; but some gums take longer to dissolve. Good gum will produce a smooth surface, but bad gum will often yield a rough one, which is inimical to the purpose. ”

“ There is no better way of preparing this than simply to put cold water upon gum arabic, and let it stand till dissolved. If for sticking purposes, as much water as will just cover the gum will be sufficient; but, for making quickmatch, 1 ounce or 11⁄4 ounce of gum to a pint of water. If required in a hurry, put the gum into cold water, in a pipkin, or tin saucepan, set it on the fire, make it boil, and keep stirring till dissolved. When cold, bottle, and cork it. ”

“ Pate de Gomme Arabique—Arabic Paste.—Very white gum arabic two pounds, sugar two pounds, orange-flower water four ounces, the whites of twelve eggs. Pound and sift the gum, add it to the water, dissolve and evaporate it over a slow fire, stirring it constantly until it is reduced to the consistence of honey with the sugar in syrup. Whip the whites to a strong snow; add it to the paste with the orange-flower water, gradually; stir and finish as marsh-mallow paste, for which this is mostly substituted, and much used for coughs. It should be very white, light, and spongy. ”

“ They require a long time to set or become hard.
Resins and Gums include a great number of substances, such as resin or hard pitch, which is distilled from pine-trees; shellac, mastic, elemi, copal, kauri gum, amber, gum arabic, dextrine made from flour, the gum of the peach and cherry, and of many other trees. To these may be added frankincense and tragacanth, which is less an adhesive than a stiffener and dresser. Gums are generally rather brittle; this is remedied by combination with oily substances, volatile oils, or caoutchouc. With these gums Lehner includes asphaltum. ”

“ Take five quarts of Brandy, in which dissolve an ounce of Frankincense, Mastic, Benjamin, and Gum Arabic; add half an ounce of Cloves and Nutmegs; an ounce and a half of Pine-nut Kernels, and sweet Almonds; with three grains of Musk. Bruise these ingredients in a marble mortar, distil in a vapour bath, and keep the water that is drawn off in a glass bottle, close stopped.
This water takes away wrinkles, and renders the skin extremely delicate; it also [57] whitens the Teeth, and abates the tooth-ache, sweetens the breath, and strengthens the gums. Foreign ladies prize it highly. ”

“ The white is considered the best. It was formerly used in medicine.
GUM. Syn. Gummi, L. The general term for an important class of vegetable products. Gums are more or less soluble in cold water, but insoluble in alcohol, ether, and oils. They are obtained from certain plants in amorphous masses; most of them exude spontaneously, or on puncturing the bark. The most perfect type of this class is the substance called GUM ARABIC, or GUM ACACIA. The gums are employed as demulcents in medicines, and are used as cements, and for giving stiffness and gloss to textile fabrics. ”

“ In obtaining the gum, freshly-gathered branches are cut in small pieces, and steeped in water for several days, after which they are boiled, the liquid being constantly stirred until the gum, in the form of a white jelly, begins to appear, when the whole is poured into a glazed vessel, and becomes concreted in cooling. ”

“ Then, if it be the upper gum that requires lancing, you ought to go to the head of the child, looking over, as it were, and into his mouth, and should steady the gum with the index finger of your left hand; then you should take hold of the gum-lancet with your right hand—holding it as if it were a table-knife at dinner—and cut firmly along the inflamed and swollen gum and down to the tooth, 61until the edge of the gum-lancet grates on the tooth. Each incision ought to extend along the ridge of the gum to about the extent of each expected tooth. ”

“ Butterflies or moths made of tiny feathers add much to the effect, and they are made thus. It is best, I find, to fill a wide-mouthed bottle with dry gum, and just cover the gum with the water, allow it to melt, keep stirring and adding a few drops of water till just right—no bought liquid gum equals one's own preparation. ”

“ To render this remedy more efficacious, add to the whole quantity of the Lotion half a pint of Cinnamon Water, distilled from White Wine.
The eastern nations, to procure a sweet breath, to render the teeth beautifully white, and fasten the gums, frequently chew boiled Chio Turpentine, or Gum Mastic. The Indians who live beyond [130] the Ganges chew it all day long, and are so used to this habit, that they cannot without difficulty refrain from it. ”

“ The gum when given in moderate doses, acts on all parts of the body as a wholesome stimulant, leading among other good results, to improvement of the vision, [220] and enlivening the spirits. But its use is apt to produce eructations smacking of garlic, which may persist for several hours; and, if it be given in over doses, the effects are headache and giddiness. When suitably administered, it quickens the appetite and improves the digestion, chiefly with those of a cold temperament, and languid habit. Smollet says the Romans stuffed their fowls for the table with Asafoetida. ”

“ CAROLINE.
Is that the gum so frequently used instead of paste or glue?
MRS. B.
It is; almost all fruit-trees yield some sort of gum, but that most commonly used in the arts is obtained from a species of acacia-tree in Arabia, and is called gum arabic; it forms the chief nourishment of the natives of those parts, who obtain it in great quantities from incisions which they make in the trees. ”

“ It is cool and vermifuge; strengthens the teeth; cures seminal weakness, fever, white leprosy, swellings, eruptions from bile, marasmus, Juzam, and mucous disorders. The gum is sweet and aphrodisiac, and strengthens the system. That made from the pith of the Khaer, is useful in boils and eruptions, affections of the mouth, and disorders of mucus and blood. ”

“ As to the way in which the gum is obtained, it appears from the statements of Maltass, that in July and August the peasants clear away the earth from around the stem of the shrub, and then make in the bark several incisions, from which during the following 3 or 4 days the gum exudes and dries in flakes. In some localities they also puncture the bark with the point of a knife. Whilst engaged in these operations, they pick from the shrubs whatever gum they find exuded naturally. ”

“ One part dissolved in water affords a fluid of the consistence of syrup; and in two parts, a medium well calculated for the union of dry powders. Gum is also soluble in pure alkalies and lime water, as well as in vegetable acids, especially vinegar, with which it forms a mucilage that may be used as a cement, like the watery solution, and with the additional advantage of not being susceptible of mouldiness. [321] It is insoluble in alcohol, as well as in æther and oils. By strong sulphuric acid the gum is decomposed, and a considerable proportion of carbon deposited. ”

“ The compound powder is a useless preparation, as the starch it contains is very liable to ferment.
Gum kuteera resembles in appearance gum tragacanth, for which the attempt has occasionally been made to substitute it. It is said to be the product of Sterculia urens, a plant of the natural order Sterculiaceae.
Cherry tree gum is an exudation from trees of the genera Prunus and Cerasus. It occurs in shiny reddish lumps, resembling the commoner kinds of gum arabic. With water, in which it is only partially soluble, it forms a thick mucilage. Sulphuric acid converts it into l-arabinose ”

“ If a piece of crust be given as a gum-stick, he must, while biting it, be well watched, or by accident he might loosen a large piece of it, which might choke him. The pressure of any of these excites a more rapid absorption of the gum, and thus causes the tooth to come through more easily and quickly. ”