AmAi°r^i877.rm"}      Unguentum  Hydrargyri  Nitratis.  163 
scientious  pharmacist  than  the  subject  of  this  paper.  There  is  none, 
perhaps,  that  has  been  experimented  with  as  much,  and  none  that  there 
has  been  less  ascertained  about,  or  which  has  yielded  less  satisfactory 
results,  notwithstanding  the  many  theories  that  have  been  advanced 
for  it. 
Many  of  our  older  pharmacists  have  their  own  pet  formulas  for  this 
ointment,  and  every  one  of  them  assures  you  that  it  makes  a  first-rate 
preparation,  possessing  all  the  necessary  qualities  for  which  this  truly 
meritorious  article  is  celebrated,  but  it  was  heretofore  never  our  lot 
to  see  any  of  them  that  could  lay  claim  to  being  an  elegant  or  scientific 
preparation.  Long  ago  the  olive  oil  and  lard  of  European  "  Pharma- 
copoeias "  have  been  discarded  as  unsuitable  for  the  purpose,  and  the 
neatsfoot  oil  adopted  instead,  which  yielded  an  article  of  more  unctuous 
consistency,  but  the  color  thereof  illy  corresponded  with  its  popular 
name.  The  lard  itself  of  the  present  edition  has  much  improved  the 
appearance  of  this  ointment,  but  it  makes  the  name  of  u  ointment"  a 
mere  sham,  as  it  requires  considerable  physical  exertion  to  reduce  it 
sufficiently  to  admit  it  being  mixed  with  ointments  or  lard  ;  the  color 
of  it,  besides,  gradually  changes  from  a  bright  yellow  into  a  greenish 
dark  hue.  Butter,  too,  has  been  recommended  as  furnishing  the  article 
r  par  excellence,"  but  alas,  it  answers  no  better  than  all  the  previously 
mentioned  oils  and  fats.  The  author  of  this  paper,  in  a  moment  of 
despair,  was  induced  to  try  the  now  popular  cosmolin  to  that  end, 
only  to  find,  that  if  exposed  to  the  air,  it  rapidly  assumed  a  dark-brown 
color,  holding  the  subnitrate  of  mercury  with  a  great  deal  of  nitric 
acid  in  suspension,  entering  no  combination  with  it,  while  by  the  sub- 
sequent liberation  of  nitrous  acid  it  is  puffed  up  not  unlike  a  sponge 
cake.  Dr.  Fessenden,  of  North  Carolina,  seemed  to  have  compre- 
hended the  fallacy  of  our  formulas,  when  he  proposed  the  employment 
of  non-drying  oils,  and  we  had  almost  cause  to  chide  the  revisors  of 
the  "  Pharmacopoeia  "  for  not  adopting  his  method  at  once,  had  we 
not  reason  to  believe  that  they  had  succeeded  with  it  as  little  as  our- 
selves, and  ascertained  that,  although  theoretically  feasible,  the  prepara- 
tion therefrom  was  most  anything  else  than  citrine  ointment. 
The  chemical  reaction  taking  place  in  the  formation  of  this  ointment 
is  confessedly  not  precisely  known,  consequently  little  understood,  and 
various  writers  have  sought  to  place  the  greatest  importance  on  the 
regulation  of  heat  and  mode  of  admixture  with  a  view  of  obtaining  a 
