158 
ON  SOME  OF  THE  APPLICATIONS  OF  GLYCERINE. 
side  of  mj  house.  It  has  there  been  exposed  to  all  the  changes 
of  temperature  and  the  action  of  the  sun  until  the  present  time, 
in  order  to  test  the  power  of  light  upon  it  as  a  bleaching  agent. 
The  result,  as  you  see,  is,  that  it  is  not  bleached ;  it  is  almost 
as  yellow  as  that  contained  in  the  bottle  marked  No.  2,  which 
has  ever  since  been  carefully  kept  from  the  light.  Therefore, 
it  is  clear  that  light  alone  will  not  always  bleach  olive  oil,  and 
I  am  informed  that  at  Horner's  they  even  occasionally  meet 
with  samples  of  castor  oil  which  will  not  bleach  after  exposure 
to  the  sun  for  years.  This  being  the  case,  we  cannot  depend 
upon  obtaining  bleached  olive  oil  which  has  not  been  oxidized  ; 
for  all  the  processes,  such  as  treating  with  animal  charcoal, 
fuller's  earth,  magnesia,  chlorine,  &c.,  are  processes  of  oxidation, 
and  must  end  in  rancidity. 
The  results  of  these  simple  experiments  show  us  very  clearly, 
that  it  is  not  the  thing  to  use  bleached  oil  and  wax  in  the 
preparation  of  ointments.  Whatever  might  be  said  to  the 
contrary,  by  ingenious  special  pleading,  the  framers  of  the 
Pharmacopoeia  never  could  have  intended  that  bleached  oil 
should  be  used  in  the  making  of  spermaceti  ointment ;  and  I 
trust  those  of  our  members  who  have  acquired  the  habit  of 
using  bleached  oil  or  lard  in  this  preparation,  will  discontinne 
the  practice,  as  it  is  most  desirable  that  uniformity  should  be 
the  rule. — Lon.  Pharm.  Journ.,  January,  1861. 
ON  SOME  OF  THE  APPLICATIONS  OF  GLYCERINE. 
I  will  now  proceed  to  describe  the  new  process  for  obtaining 
and  purifying  glycerine,  and  may  remark  that  the  road  by  which 
we  arrived  at  pure  glycerine  was  a  rather  circuitous  one.  Our 
first  step  was  to  do  away  with  the  lime  process  of  saponification, 
and  with  it  our  only  source  of  impure  glycerine.  By  our  first 
improvement  in  separating  the  fat  acids  from  neutral  fats,  the 
glycerine  was  decomposed  by  the  direct  action  of  concentrated 
sulphuric  acid  at  a  high  temperature ;  and  all  that  remained  of 
it  was  a  charred  precipitate.    A  new  process*  for  decomposing 
[*  It  is  sometimes  diflBcult  to  act  ingenuously  in  stating  historical  facts 
even  in  chemistry.  Most  of  the  credit  of  Mr.  Wilson's  process  for  dis- 
tilled glycerine,  is  due  to  Mr.  R.  B.  Tilghman  of  this  city,  whose  patent 
