CREOSOTE 419 



dressing for wounds. It is less caustic than phenol, and it 

 may be administered as an intestinal antiseptic. 



CREOSOTE 



CREOSOTUM. Creosote. A mixture of guaiacol, creosol, and 

 other phenols, obtained in the distillation of wood- tar 

 (B.P.). 



Tar obtained from hard woods yields 20 to 25 per cent, 

 of creosote. The process of extraction is tedious and com- 

 plex, requiring repeated distillations and the removal of 

 the lighter oils. It is a mixture of phenol, cresol, phlorol, 

 guaiacol, and 20 to 50 per cent, of creosol. It yields 

 creosotic acid, which in its properties and uses closely 

 resembles salicylic acid. 



Creosote is a mobile, oily, neutral, or only faintly acid fluid, 

 colourless and transparent when first prepared, but, unless 

 very pure, soon becoming brown. Specific gravity 1*079. 

 It has a strong, persistent, smoky odour, and a pungent, 

 acrid taste, with a sweet after-taste. It requires for solution 

 one hundred and fifty parts of water, but readily dissolves in 

 alcohol, ether, acetic acid, and volatile oils. Dropped on 

 white filtering paper, and exposed to a heat of 212 Fahr., 

 it leaves no translucent stain (B.P.). 



Impure carbolic acid and other coal-tar oils, frequently 

 mixed with or substituted for the more expensive wood 

 creosote, are distinguished from it by their greater solubility 

 in water ; by their solidifying in acicular crystals at low 

 temperatures ; by their not affecting a ray of polarised light, 

 which creosote turns to the left ; by their producing a clear 

 jelly when shaken with collodion, which does not affect wood 

 creosote ; while their watery solution gives a blue colour, 

 with a neutral iron perchloride solution, which gradually 

 browns the watery solution of wood creosote. 



ACTIONS AND USES. Creosote belongs to the aromatic 

 series of carbon compounds. Containing so many phenols 

 and guaiacol, it has a complex action, but it resembles 

 carbolic acid, and is a more active germicide. It is occasion- 

 ally administered to arrest gastro-intestinal fermentation, 



