156  EXPERIMENTS  ON  SPERMACETI  OINTMENT  AND  OLIVE  OIL. 
could  it  be  said  that  this  oil  was  unfit  for  use  ?  Mr.  Barnes  had 
stated,  when  bleached,  it  was  more  hable  to  become  rancid. 
Possibly  this  might  be  the  case  when  chemical  agents  were  used 
for  bleaching  it,  but  he  was  not  aware  that  it  was  necessarily 
more  prone  to  become  rancid  when  colorless  than  in  the  ordinary 
state.  Indeed,  there  were  some  circumstances  which  would 
seem  rather  to  lead  to  an  opposite  conclusion.  Thus,  he  had 
observed  that  during  the  bleaching  of  olive  oil,  there  was 
usually  a  deposit  formed,  consisting  of  flocculent  matter,  and 
this  organic  matter,  if  retained  in  solution,  would  be  likely  to 
promote  the  kind  of  change  which  occurs  when  the  oil  becomes 
rancid. 
"The  public  approved  of  spermaceti  ointment  made  with 
bleached  oil,  and  until  it  could  be  shown  that  this  was  inferior 
to  the  other,  he  thought  it  too  much  to  condemn  the  bleached 
oil  as  an  unwarrantable  deviation  from  the  instructions  of  the 
Pharmacopoeia." 
Believing  that  this  question  could  not  be  settled  by  words 
only,  I  determined  upon  making  a  few  experiments,  in  order  to 
ascertain  which  is  the  best  preparation — that  made  with  natural 
yellow  olive  oil,  or  that  made  with  bleached  olive  oil.  Also  to 
discover  whether  olive  oil  exposed  to  light  alone,  would  bleach  and 
whether  the  bleaching  by  that  agent  would  remove  its  character- 
istic odor  and  render  it  rancid. 
On  the  12th  of  October,  1858,  I  had  these  four  specimens  of 
spermaceti  ointment  prepared.  No.  1  was  made  with  sweet 
olive  oil  of  the  usual  yellow  color,  white  wax,  and  spermaceti. 
No.  2  with  siveet  olive  oil  (yellow),  unbleached  bees'  wax,  and 
spermaceti.  No.  3  with  fresh  olive  oil,  bleached  by  means  of 
animal  charcoal,  spermaceti,  and  white  wax.  No.  4  with  fresh 
lard,  Avhite  wax,  and  spermaceti.  The  Pharmacopoeia  propor- 
tions were  employed.  These  ointments  have  been  kept  loosely 
covered  in  ordinary  covered  pots  in  the  shop,  exposed  to  the 
usual  changes  of  temperature. 
At  the  end  of  three  months  1  examined  them,  and  found  Nos. 
3  and  4  decidedly  rancid  and  unfit  for  use,  whilst  No.  1  and 
No.  2,  those  prepared  with  unbleached  materials,  were  quite 
good,  possessing  the  usual  pleasant  smell  of  good  ointment. 
In  order  to  ascertain  how  long  Nos.  1  and  2  would  continue 
