THE  AMERICAN 
JOURNAL  OF  PHARMACY. 
DECEMBER,  1889. 
OLEATES. 
By  G.  M.  Beringer,  Ph.  G. 
Read  at  the  Pharmaceutical  Meeting,  November  19. 
Historical. — The  medicinal  application  of  the  oleates  was  proposed 
by  Professor  John  Marshall,  of  London  (see  Amer.  Jour,  of  Phar., 
1872,  p.  317).  He  claimed  that  the  oleate  of  mercury  containing, 
the  mercury  in  solution  in  a  solvent  remarkable  for  its  diffusi- 
bility  and  penetrating  properties,  was  quickly  absorbed,  promptly  pro- 
ducing the  effect  of  the  mercury.  Numerous  metallic  oleates  and 
solutions  of  the  alkaloids  in  oleic  acid  were  soon  tried  by  various 
investigators,  and  a  series  of  valuable  papers  contributed  in  the  var- 
ious pharmaceutical  and  medical  journals  mark  the  progress  of  our 
knowledge  in  this  direction.  Among  the  more  notable  being  the 
papers  of  Dr.  L.  Wolff  (Amer.  Jour,  of  Phar.,  1881, 
p.  545),  Dr.  J.  V.  Shoemaker  {Med.  and  Surg.  Report,  May  13, 
1882),  and  H.  B.  Parsons  {Drug.  Circ,  1885,  p.  2),  who  furnished  a 
series  of  formulas  which  have  been  made  the  basis  of  the  formulas  for 
the  oleates  of  the  National  Formulary. 
The  oleates  as  originally  proposed  were  prepared  by  dissolving  the 
oxides  of  the  various  bases  in  oleic  acid,  and  the  oleates  recognized  by 
the  United  States  and  British  Pharmacopoeias  are  thus  prepared. 
Unfortunately,  as  thus  prepared  they  are  not,  as  a  rule,  as  permanent 
or  as  acceptable  as  those  obtained  by  double  decomposition.  The 
oleates  as  now  prepared  by  the  manufacturing  pharmacists  are  largely 
true  oleates  or  oleo-palmitates  or  oleo-stearates  of  the  bases  prepared 
by  double  decomposition,  and  it  is  hoped  by  the  writer  that  in  the 
next  revision  of  the  Pharmacopoeia  formulas  for  such  will  be  intro- 
duced. , 
