184 
BRITISH PHARMACEUTICAL CONFERENCE. 
The chief objection to plasma, of which I know little, and therefore shall say 
little, is that it is dear. I have heard that in use it is troublesome, in conse¬ 
quence of its proneness to deliquescence. My other objection may seem fanci¬ 
ful, but it is a fact that I cannot look with favour on a dressing for wounds 
that does not contain some fatty substance. Fats have been used for that pur¬ 
pose from the very earliest ages. The use of oil is mentioned and recommended 
in the Bible, and fat in some form or other is still universally employed by men 
civilized or savage, in the dressing of external wounds. Its great and over¬ 
whelming advantage is its cleanness in use ; it is readily removed by sponging; 
it “ touches ” completely the parts to which it is applied. 
Glycelseum is cheap ; it is easily sponged off; it “ touches” wet surfaces, and 
combines with them to form an emulsion, resembling somewhat in character the 
pus which nature pours out for the defence of raw surfaces. It does not deli¬ 
quesce to a disagreeable extent, nor does it soften by the heat of the diseased 
parts. It is capable, as I have indicated, of an immense amount of variation. 
I have never observed it to become mouldy or rancid from keeping. Glycelseum 
has been little tried as a remedy; I have had difficulty in finding persons to 
make trial of it. -Dr. Tilbury Fox has, however, at Mr. D. Hanbury’s suggestion, 
made some experiments with it, and reports u that he likes it very much ; that it 
is a capital thing where it is a desideratum to get hardened parts into a more 
‘ supple ’ condition.” Although I can bring but one testimony in its favour, it 
must be allowed to be a first-rate one. 
Still less trial has been made of glycelseum as a vehicle for the administration 
of oils and balsams, though it would not be difficult to find stomachs that sup¬ 
port with difficulty castor and cod-liver oils, and balsam of copaiba. As 
“oiled” melted butter is known to upset a weak stomach, whilst well-made, 
i. e. well-emulsed melted butter does not, it might be inferred that an emulsed 
oil would in some cases agree with the stomach when the plain oil would not. I 
am convinced of this, that the glycelseum copaibse, stiffened with powdered 
cubeb, would form a more elegant and a more supportable electuary than the 
nasty and imperfectly mixed mass one commonly meets with. 
The uses of these bodies in the cosmetic art will not, I presume, be lost sight 
of. 
I have already alluded to the fact, that it is to the emulsine contained in these 
oil-seeds we must attribute the extraordinary emulsive power of these vegetable 
powders. (Certainly no organic principle has been more consistently named 
than it.) This I have proved experimentally, by preparing some of the sub¬ 
stance, and trying it in -its pure state. I found that five grains dissolved in one 
drachm of water would emulse into a jelly four drachms of olive oil (using the 
spatula, not the pestle). To prepare the emulsine I digested for a few hours 
powdered almond meal with tepid water, filtered, added to three measures of 
the filtrate five measures of rectified spirit, collected the precipitate and dried it 
at a temperature not exceeding 100°. 
In conclusion, I will say a few words about the dietetic use of emulsine. I 
wonder it has not been pressed into the service of the infants. It is really a 
vegetable albumen ; like it, it is coagulable by heat, and contains a large 
proportion of nitrogen in a form available for the production of fibrin for 
the blood and muscles. It is contained, it is said, in almonds to the extent of 
80 per cent., and is easily extracted therefrom. A tepid infusion of the meal, 
filtered, sweetened, and then evaporated at a temperature not exceeding 100° 
to a syrup, would not be unlikely to be a useful alimentary preparation. 
Mr. Deane did not wish to trespass upon the province of the surgeon by offering his 
opinion on the respective therapeutic merits of fatty or other bases for ointments, but 
he did not think that fatty substances were perfectly satisfactory. As to plasma, he 
