"Long and unpleasant has been the history of dentifrice, with one distasteful and destructive recipe following another.  The Ebers papyrus (1500 B.C.) describes a dentirice of ground pebbles, honey, incense ad pulverized fruit.  Charle Allen, in 1687, claimed his preparation of magistery of pearls, powder of coral, dragons blood and red rose water required once weekly use.  By the early 19th century a plethora of proprietary tooth-pastes were being sold in stoneware pots with wonderfully decorated lids extolling the virtues of their formula."   - Benion