OINTMENTS AND THEIR SUBSTITUTES. 
411 
I have had experience in several good establishments as dispenser, and I find it 
rarely ordered, (syr. aurant. mori, and rhoeados being the favourite syrups,) and 
having but slight medicinal properties, we can well afford to lose it. I agree 
with him in his remaining remarks, and hope to see in the future Pharmacopoeia, 
revised and corrected, a vade mecum for the prescriber, dispenser, laborator, and 
apprentice. Apologizing for intruding upon your valuable space, 
I am, etc., 
A Dispenser. 
Clifton, December 18, 1865. 
OINTMENTS AND THEIR SUBSTITUTES. 
TO THE EDITORS OF THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL. 
Gentlemen,—It is of course beyond the province of a chemist and druggist 
to express an opinion that aqueous dressings are, in most instances, preferable 
to unguents, or vice versa , but it is our business to see that what is ordered by 
the physician, and asked for by the public, is in the best state to answer the 
purpose intended, and there can be no doubt that (excepting, perhaps, Ung. 
Sulphuris) all ointments are more fitted for use when freshly made or sent out 
in their normal state, than after being long kept. Having paid a good deal of 
attention to this branch of Pharmacy, I submit the result of my experience, 
knowing well that these matters of every-day business are always conned by 
your readers with more or less interest. 
First, with reference to olive oil,—I would expunge this oil from the Phar¬ 
macopoeia, substituting almond oil for it. Olive oil is very variable in quality, 
and always contains more or less mucilage. Whether this ensues from pressing 
bad olives, or from adulteration with seed oil, it is not easy to say, but our law 
courts have lately proved that the latter is sometimes made available. A very 
good test for the quality of this oil is supplied in making linimentum ammonise— 
the more inferior the oil the thicker will be the emulsion,—in fact, I find of late 
it is impossible to use the olive oil, now met with in commerce, for this purpose, 
the product averaging the consistence of Devonshire cream. I am not sure 
that even almond oil is exactly what it ought to be. The late Mr. IPallows read 
a paper at one of the earlier meetings of the Society, recommending this lini¬ 
ment to be made with a mixture of nut oil and almond oil; it certainly now, 
without the addition, gives an emulsion with very little separation. 
Secondly, with reference to lard,—I think this substance, from its proneness 
to rancidity, might be omitted in some cases with advantage in some of the 
cases in which it is ordered. There is also this drawback ; very few possess the 
appliances for rendering it properly, and must necessarily depend upon the 
wholesale houses for its preparation. Ceratum simplex of the P. L., from its 
hardness, was practically useless. The unguentum simplex of the P. B. might 
be supplanted by an ointment which, under the name of ceratum molle, forms 
a most excellent simple dressing, also a good vehicle for more potent remedies. 
I formerly prepared it with olive oil, but latterly with almond oil. Its compo¬ 
sition is— 
If Cerse Flavse sij 
01. Amygd. 5ix. M. ft. Ung. 
Ung. hyd. nit. init. prepared with the ceratum molle maintains its respecta¬ 
bility long after the other has been condemned. 
Ung. sabinae I do not make, but I believe, if the savine were digested with 
almond oil and after straining solidified with yelloAv wax we should liave a 
more permanent colour than is now obtained. 
Ung. pot. iod. is the most unstable of all. Unless it can be proved that 
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