480 
Oil  of  SesdMUtrl. 
/  Aih.  Jour,  tharfti. 
\    October,  1910. 
LINIMENTUM  GALCIS. 
Although  the  U:S.P;  formula  for  lime  liniment  or  carron  oil, 
i.e.,  equal  volumes  of  linseed  oil  and  lime  water,  is  perfectly  satis- 
factory, I  wish  to  call  your  attention  to  the  liniment  prepared  with 
oleum  sesami  which  is  official  in  the  Japanese  Pharmacopoeia  III, 
1905.  As  you  see  by  this  extemporaneous  preparation  equal  parts, 
by  weight,  of  sesame  oil  and  lime  water  will  give  at  once  a  beau- 
tiful, white,  homogeneous  liniment. 
1 
LINIMENTUM  CAMPHORS. 
The  employment  of  heat  in  the  present  U.S. P.  directions  has 
unquestionably  been  the  direct  cause  of  court  decisions  that  the 
preparation  cannot  contain  20  per  cent,  of  camphor. 
Sesame  oil  is  much  to  be  preferred  to  cottonseed  oil :  first, 
because  it  is  not  gummy  or  sticky;  second,  because  it  is  readily 
absorbed  by  the  skin  ;  and  third,  because  it  is  a  better  solvent  for 
camphor  as  the  same  dissolves  easily  without  the  aid  of  heat. 
Circulatory  displacement,  without  heat,  in  my  experience  is 
the  ideal  method  of  preparing  a  full-strength  camphorated  oil, 
which  synonym  will  undoubtedly  be  admitted  in  the  next  revision. 
Our  U.S. P.  should  include  besides  a  short  physical  description 
including  specific  gravity  also  an  assay  for  determining  the 
strength  of  camphor  liniment.    The  Austrian  Pharmacopoeia  VIII, 
1906,  which  orders  one  part  of  camphor  and  three  parts  of  oleum 
sesami,  gives  the  following  approximate  method  for  determining 
the  strength:  When  10  c.c.  of  oleum  camphoratum  and  alcohol  are 
well  shaken  together  in  a  graduated  tube,  then  the  separated 
alcoholic  layer  should  not  measure  less  than  13  c.c.  While  this 
is  not  an  exact  assay,  it  will  certainly  serve  as  an  approximate 
test  which  can  be  easily  applied  by  the  average  pharmacist.  Ex- 
periments in  the  application  of  this  test  to  the  U.S. P.  camphor 
liniment  are  going  on  in  my  laboratory  and  will  be  published  in 
due  time. 
INFUSED  OILS. 
Infused  oils  and  quite  especially  Oleum  Hyoscyami  Infusum 
N.F.  or,  as  it  is  named  by  the  foreign  pharmacopoeias,  "  coctum." 
The  process  employed  in  the  N.F.,  as  well  as  the  foreign  pharma- 
copoeias, is  the  Eugene  Dieterich  method,  consisting  of  macerating 
