189 
REMARKS UPON THE USES OF BISULPHITE OF LIME IN 
PHARMACY. 
BY WENTWORTH LASCELLES SCOTT, F.C.S., ETC. 
I have undertaken to lay before the British Pharmaceutical Conference, in a 
few words, the results of some experiments instituted with the view of discover¬ 
ing a means of preventing the rancidity and decomposition to which various 
ointments and fatty preparations are liable, if kept for any length of time. 
A series of specimens of freshly-made spermaceti and other ointments, cold 
cream, bear’s grease, and simple lard, were placed in similar pots, and allowed 
to rest in a warm situation ; a duplicate series, to which a very small propor¬ 
tion of bisulphite of lime had been added, being put by the side of the first. 
In the course of six or seven months, most of the first series had become more 
or less decomposed; they had an acid reaction and disagreeable odour, while 
those to which the bisulphite had been added remained absolutely fresh and 
sweet. In consequence, I now treat all preparations of fatty or oleaginous sub¬ 
stances with a little of this salt, applied in the form of strong solution, and have 
never yet found it to fail. 
The bisulphite of lime,—more strictly, of course, the bisulphite of calcium,— 
is now manufactured upon a very large scale under Messrs. Medlock and 
Bailey’s patent for the “ preservation of animal substances,”—a process with 
which I have experimented very largely, as having important bearings upon 
my special subject of British “Food Resources but I am distinctly of opinion 
that the bisulphite is capable of many useful applications in the pharmaceutical 
laboratory. 
For ointments, a fluid drachm to each pound is quite sufficient to preserve 
them, while it has no injurious action whatever, and is quite compatible with 
the great majority of ointments and oily preparations,—a remark which does 
not apply to the alkaline sulphites or bisulphites which have from time to time 
been brought forward for similar purposes. 
Beef-tea or broth in hospitals or otherwise may be prevented from turning 
sour by stirring in a few drops of the bisulphite of lime solution to each pint of 
the soup ; and the same plan will enable us to keep jellies, which ordinarily de¬ 
compose so rapidly in the organic germ-laden air of the sick-room, for many 
days unimpaired; these are, in ray opinion, considerations of some moment in 
all circumstances, but most especially in the habitations of the poor. 
Clothes or matting, soaked in the same solution and hung up, act as disinfect¬ 
ants of the most effective kind, and do not exhale the peculiarly unpleasant odour 
of carbolic acid, or the irritating vapours, so distressing to the bronchial system, 
of chloride of lime. 
I have successfully employed the bisulphite of calcium for the preservation of 
numerous anatomical and other specimens, as it does its work perfectly, and 
without occasioning the great changes of colour and contraction of muscular 
structure so frequently produced by ordinary antiseptics ; moreover, its special 
advantage over the preparations of mercury and arsenic lies, to my thinking, in 
the fact that it is not poisonous, and can therefore be handled with perfect 
safety. 
There are numerous substances employed in pharmacy,—such as musk, cas- 
toreum, lard, and other fatty matters,—which are more or less injured by de¬ 
composition or keeping for any length of time. To these the bisulphite can be 
applied with considerable advantage. 
At the request of the President, Mr. Hanbury, F.R.S., offered some very interesting 
remarks upon the rarer specimens of Materia Medica, exhibited in the room by the 
