THE  AMERICAN 
JOURNAL  OF  PHARMACY 
NOVEMBER,  igoo. 
OINTMENTS. 
WITH    A    FORMULARY   OF    THE    OINTMENTS    IN   USE   AT    THE  GERMAN 
HOSPITAL,  PHILADELPHIA. 
BY  M.  I.  Wl^BERT. 
Ointments  are  among  the  oldest  of  our  pharmaceutical  prepara- 
tions. Their  discovery,  or  introduction,  would  seem  to  date  back 
long  before  the  dawn  of  any  known  historic  era.  The  ancient 
Egyptians  used  ointments  very  extensively  for  medicinal  as  well  as 
for  toilet  purposes.  According  to  Dioscorides  the  use  of  oint- 
ments was  so  extensive  in  ancient  Egypt  that  their  manufacture 
had  developed  into  a  distinct  specialty  or  art,  and  the  ointment 
makers  of  that  time  were  not  only  numerous,  but  also  highly 
respected.  The  same  writer,  in  his  Treatise  on  Materia  Medica,  has 
preserved  the  formulas  of  several  of  the  more  popular  and  well 
known  Egyptian  ointments  of  his  time. 
From  Egypt  the  art  of  making  these  preparations  gradually 
spread  to  other  Oriental  countries,  where  they  were  and  still  are 
quite  extensively  used,  especially  for  toilet  purposes.  As  a  toilet 
article  they  were  used  to  counteract  the  strong  and,  in  many  cases, 
somewhat  disagreeable  exhalations  from  the  human  body ;  with 
many  of  these  Eastern  people  ointments  were  a  substitute  for  soap 
and  water. 
The  Je#s  classed  ointments  among  the  necessities  of  life,  and 
used  them  freely,  especially  as  an  adjunct  to  the  toilet  on  festive 
occasions.  With  these  people  the  non-use  of  ointments  was  con- 
sidered to  be  a  sign  of  sorrow  and  mourning. 
An  indication  of  the  age  of  this  class  of  preparations  is  found  in 
(513) 
