22 
Petrolatum  vs.  Vaseline. 
/Am.  Jour.  Pharni. 
\    January,  1897. 
place  thereof  invented  and  adopted  the  word  "  Petrolatum, ' '  which  was  intended 
to  represent  a  substance  identical  to  our  vaseline.  This  action  has  encouraged 
the  manufacture  of  worthless  imitations  of  our  product,  which  are  sold  to  the 
druggists,  the  vast  majority  of  whom  neither  know  nor  care  anything  about 
their  quality,  and  the  result  is  a  confusion  of  ideas  amongst  physicians  and 
failure  of  benefit  to  the  patient.  Now  it  is  about  time  that  you  should  clearly 
understand  : 
(1)  That  "petrolatum"  is  not  "vaseline,"  and  that  the  formula  given  in 
the  Pharmacopoeia  does  not  and  will  not  make  vaseline. 
(2)  That  petrolatum  has  come  to  mean  a  worthless  and  often  noxious  petro- 
leum product,  varying  in  quality  from  axle-grease  up. 
(3)  That  vaseline  is  not  only  useful  as  a  vehicle  (as  many  physicians  think), 
but  that  it  has  extraordinary  value  as  a  remedy  both  externally  and  internally, 
which  petrolatum  has  not. 
These  reasons  ought  to  be  conclusive,  to  say  nothing  of  the  fairness  which 
should  prompt  honorable  men  to  recognize  those  who  give  time,  brains  and 
money  to  the  benefit  of  the  world,  rather  than  to  those  who  live  by  appropri- 
ating to  themselves  the  creations  of  others. 
It  would  seem  at  first  sight  that  the  patentee  has  some  rights  to 
an  unlimited  monopoly,  which  the  advertisers  claim  in  recompense 
for  the  brains  and  money  which  has  been  largely  devoted  to  the 
benefit  of  mankind.  It  appears,  however,  that  no  mortal  born  of 
woman  has  yet  been  endowed  with  talents  sufficient  to  enable  him 
to  render  mankind  any  service  whatsoever  without  having  himself 
first  profited  by  the  labor  and  brains  of  others.  For  this  reason 
patents  have  only  a  limited  existence.  The  wisdom  of  this  limited 
monopoly  is  clearly  demonstrated  when  we  consider  that  the 
patentee  of  the  process  for  the  purification  of  the  crude  residue  of 
petroleum  distillation  was  not  the  originator  of  the  use  of  animal 
charcoal  as  a  deodorizer  and  decolorizer,  and,  in  fact,  was  not  the  first 
person  to  apply  it  for  this  particular  purpose ;  for  Fluckiger's  Phar- 
maceutische  Chemie  tells  us  that  "in  1847  C.  B.  Mansfield,  Cam- 
bridge, England,  patented  a  process  for  decolorizing  or  deodorizing 
petroleum  sediment  by  means  of  animal  charcoal;  in  1865-66  R. 
A.  Cheseborough,  of  New  York,  U.  S.  A.,  patented  a  process  for 
the  purpose  by  the  use  of  hot  animal  charcoal,  and  in  1872  he 
patented  the  fantastic  name  of  vaseline." 
EVOLUTION  OF  VASELINE. 
Patent  No.  49,502,  dated  August  22,1865,  to  R.  A.  Chesebor- 
ough, for  the  use  of  bone-black  for  purifying  petroleum  or  coal  oils 
by  filtration. 
