548 
Oleates  and  Oleo-Palmitates. 
( Am.  .Tour.  Pharm. 
'(      Kuv.,  1881. 
The  oleo-palmitate  of  bismuth  is  of  an  unctuous  consistence,  and  I 
am  advised  has  yielded  very  good  results  in  chronic  skin  affections 
where  an  alterative  action  seems  desirable.  To  prepare  it  the  solution 
of  soap  was  decomposed  by  a  glycerin  solution  of  the  crystallized 
nitrate  of  bismuth. 
The  oleo-palmitate  of  lead  is  nothing  more  than  the  lead  plaster  of 
old,  but  it  is  free  from  glycerin,  beautifully  white,  and  dissolved  in 
olive  oil  makes  a  litharge  ointment  more  elegant  and  quicker  than  the 
recently-proposed  process  of  precipitating  the  hydrated  oxide  of  lead 
from  the  basic  lead  acetate  solution,  and  saponifying  it  with  olive  oil 
in  the  presence  of  water.  It  affords  also  a  very  excellent  substitute 
for  the  old  lead  plaster,  and  can  readily  be  made  in  a  very  short  time 
at  an  expense  not  exceeding  that  of  the  old  method.  It  is  best  pre- 
pared by  precipitating  the  soap  solution  with  the  officinal  solution  of 
lead  subacetate. 
The  oleate  of  mercury  is  well-known  for  its  therapeutic  application, 
and  I  dwell  on  it  no  further  than  to  state  that  it  should  be  diluted 
with  cosmolin,  unless  it  is  needed  to  make  a  marked  mercurial  impres- 
sion. It  should  be  prepared  by  precipitating  the  soap  solution  by  a 
concentrated  watery  solution  of  mercuric  chloride.  The  precipitate  so 
formed  should  be  heated  to  the  boiling  point  to  insure  its  sul^sidence. 
It  is  then  deprived  of  its  water  in  a  water-bath,  dissolved  in  benzin 
and  filtered,  and  the  filtrate  left  to  evaporate. 
The  oleate  of  copper  is  as  yet  not  used,  bat  I  should  think  would,  if 
diluted  with  oil  or  cosmolin,  make  an  excellent  stimulant  application 
to  indolent  ulcers,  lupus,  etc.  The  soap  solution,  precipitated  with 
a  solution  of  cupric  sulphate,  yields  it  readily. 
The  oleate  of  jron  has  as  yet  found  no  use,  to  my  knowledge,  though 
in  the  formulas  proposed  for  ferrated  codliver  oil  this  is  evidently 
formed.  That  a  definite  quantity  of  it  dissolved  in  codliver  oil  would 
serve  quite  as  well,  seems  obvious,  though  its  odor  and  taste  is  not 
encouraging.  I  have  made  it  by  precipitating  the  soap  solution  with 
a  solution  of  ferrous  sulphate,  but  found  that  from  a  ferrous  the  new- 
formed  salt  readily  changed  to  the  ferric  state. 
I  have  still  a  number  of  other  metallic  salts  under  experimentation, 
the  results  of  which  I  intend  to  make  the  subject  of  another  paper. 
While  I  do  not  consider  that  I  have  by  far  exhausted  the  research  in 
the  direction  of  these  valuable  therapeutic  agents,  I  trust  that  I  have 
re-awakened  the  interest  therein  which,  from  incompleteness,  began  to 
flag:,  and  that  hereafter  the  oleates  will  be  considered  rather  as  chemi- 
cally  defined  bodies  than  mere  unstable  solutions  of  metallic  oxides  in 
oleic  acids. 
Philadelphia^  October,  1881. 
