ON THE PHARMACEUTICAL APPLICATION OF GLYCERINE. 
209 
The amount of hydration in some is less, while in others it is considerably more 
than the theoretical quantity :— 
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) 
1-27 2-57 2-75 1-5 3-51 6-71 
In none does the percentage of anhydrous nitric acid exceed -6, in some it is 
as low as -03 ; and in one sample it is totally absent. 
ON THE PHARMACEUTICAL APPLICATIONS OF GLYCERINE. 
BY MR. F. BADEN BENGER. 
(Read at the Bath Meeting of the British Pharmaceutical Conference , Sept. 1864.) 
The Edinburgh branch of the Pharmaceutical Society thought proper to 
award me the President’s Prize for an essay on this subject a few months since, 
and it is from that paper chiefly that I have taken the following notes. It is 
needless to detain the Members of the Conference by giving a detailed account 
of the introduction of glycerine into pharmacy, nevertheless I should like to 
make a few remarks on this part of the subject. Glycerine, as is well known, 
was discovered by Scheele ; but I find considerable discrepancy in the ascribed 
dates. "Watts, in his ‘ Chemical Technology,’ gives 1776 ; Demarquay, in his 
recently-published treatise ‘ De la Glycerine,’ Gerhardt, and others, 1779 ; M. 
Chevalier, in reporting on a paper by M. Bruere Perrin in the ‘Journal de 
ChimieMedicale,’ 1782-83 ; while Dr. Abbotts Smith and others make it as late 
as 1789 ; but the fact that Scheele published his discovery in the ‘Transactions 
of the Royal Academy of Sweden’ in 1783, seems to prove the latter date erro¬ 
neous. It is to M. Chevreul, however, that we are indebted for giving to this 
substance “ a local habitation and a name,” which he accomplished about thirty 
years after its discovery, by demonstrating the true part it played in the consti¬ 
tution of fatty bodies (viz. that of a base, combined with stearic, margaric, and 
oleic acids). He gave it the name of glycerine, it having been previously known 
as the “ sweet principle of oils.” In 1844 it was first used in England as a 
therapeutic agent, but attracted little attention till the publication of the admirable 
papers of M. Cap, in the ‘Journal de Pharmacie et de Chimie’ for February, 1854, 
and MM. Cap and Garot in the same Journal, August, 1854. These gentlemen 
pointed out the peculiar advantages offered by glycerine as a solvent, and, by a 
very complete course of experiments, suggested for it almost innumerable phar¬ 
maceutical applications. They devised means of obtaining it in a much greater 
state of purity from the waste liquors of the soap-boiler than it had hitherto 
been supplied, but it was found impossible to rid it entirely of the impurities 
(especially volatile fatty acids) derived from the substances used in the manufac¬ 
ture of the soap. The purest glycerine was at this time obtained during the 
process of making lead plaster. A very important discovery was made by 
Mr. Richard Albert Tilghman, of Philadelphia, about this date, viz. the possi¬ 
bility of separating glycerine from fats by the aid of heat and water only. A 
patent was granted to this gentleman January 9tli, 1854. In his specification 
Mr. Tilghman says, “ I subject these fatty or oily bodies to the action of water 
at a high temperature under pressure, so as to cause the elements of these bodies 
to combine with water, and to obtain, at the same time, free fat acids, and solu¬ 
tion of glycerine.” The temperature used by Mr. Tilghman was that of melted 
lead (612° F.). Great improvements in the details of this process were 
shortly afterwards made by Mr. G. F. Wilson, F.R.S., of the firm of Price and 
Co., Vauxhall. As a source of glycerine he employs palm-oil bleached by expo¬ 
sure to the air ; this is decomposed in suitable apparatus by steam at a tempera¬ 
ture of 550° to 600° F., maintained for several hours. The glycerine is then 
VOL. VI. B 
