Du Mez-—The Galenical Oleoresins. 
915 
tage accruing from the substitution of oleoresina for extracta 
aetherea lay in the fact that as a sub-class they were removed 
from the other sub-classes of extracts:- e. g., the extracta (solida), 
extracta fluida , etc. With the substitution of acetone for ether 
as an extracting medium, in the eighth- revision of the United 
States Pharmacopoeia, it is possibly fortunate that the designa¬ 
tion extracta aetherea never gained a footing in this country. 
The preparation of this particular class of galenicals was de¬ 
pendent upon the use of ether. Although, a number of chem¬ 
ists before the eighteenth century had obtained some ether as an 
ingredient of a mixture resulting from the action of sulphuric 
acid upon alcohol, it appears that the first commercial ether 
was prepared in 1730 by Frobenius, 1 ) who, however, kept his 
process a secret. The use of the distillation residues for the 
preparation of more ether, known to Frobenius, was emphasized 
by several German chemists, and caused a considerable reduc¬ 
tion in the price of this article. Thus Cadet, in 1774, pointed 
out that he could sell an ounce of ether at 40 sous, 2 3 ) whereas 
Baume had sold it at 12 livres. But even with this reduction 
in price, ether does not appear to have been a common phar¬ 
maceutical commodity at that time. Thus, e. g., Hermbstaedt 8 ) 
in 1792, mentions ether and enumerates its properties evidently 
for the reason that it is of pharmaceutical interest primarily be¬ 
cause it is an ingredient of Liquor anodynus mineralis Hoff - 
manni. However, it should be remarked that Baume mentioned 
it in 1762 as a solvent in the preparation of resin of Jalap, 4 ) and 
in 1790, 5 ) he described its use in the preparation of ethereal 
tinctures. 
The first positive reference concerning - the use of ether as a 
solvent in the preparation of a galenical of the type of our pres¬ 
ent oleoresins, that appears in the literature, is to be found in 
Peschier’g report (in 1825) on the preparation of the Huile de 
Fougere Male, the present oleoresin of aspidium. As a result 
of the almost immediate popularity of this preparation, other 
pharmacists were induced to experiment with ether in attempting 
duplicate or modify Pesehier ? s process. However, none of the 
1 Kopp. Geschicht. d. Chem., vol. 4» p. 302. 
2 Ibid. 
3 Grundriss d. exp. Phar.ro., part 2, p. 161. 
4 Elements de Pharm. (1872), p. 284. 
5 Ibid. (1790), p. 262. 
