"^"^Mayrim*""""}  Petrox  Preparations.  215 
and  the  Codex  "  Parogeiium,"  and  as  English  synonyms  Parogen, 
VasoHment  and  "  Oxygenated  Paraffin,"  thus  perpetuating  one  of 
the  vagaries  of  the  proprietary  medicine  man's  advertisement. 
The  present  edition  of  the  National  Formulary  contains  only 
formulas  for  the  two  basic  preparations,  "  Liquid  Petrox "  and 
"  Solid  Petrox,"  but  it  is  proposed  to  introduce  in  the  forthcoming 
revision  a  full  line  of  such  formulas.  This  contribution  to  the  sub^ 
ject  is  the  result  of  an  extensive  series  of  experiments  that  we 
have  carried  out  in  order  to  determine  proper  formulas  therefor. 
Most  of  the  details  of  such  experimentation  and  the  failures  are 
omitted  and  only  formulas  tried  and  in  our  opinion  satisfactory 
are  here  presented. 
Neither  the  official  nor  the  sub-titles  should  be  unwieldy,  but 
should  be  such  as  are  euphonious  and  to  become  popular  should 
lend  themselves  to  the  customary  abbreviations  of  prescription  writ- 
ing. The  present  N.  F.  Latin  titles,  "  Petrolatum  Saponatum 
Liquidum  "  and  "  Petrolatum  Saponatum  Spissum,"  are  too  long 
and  cannot  be  readily  abbreviated ;  and  these  objections  become  more 
pronounced  when  added  to  a  specific  name,  as  in  the  compound 
preparations.  Such  could  never  be  popularized  and  would  detract 
from  the  use  and  usefulness  of  the  formulas. 
The  present  N.  F.  has  adopted  as  popular  English  title  "  Petrox," 
which  precedes  the  British  Codex  title  in  publication  and  is  already 
to  some  extent  established  in  practice  and  must  be  retained  at  least 
as  a  popular  title.  It  moreover  lends  itself  easily  to  combined  names 
for  the  compounds  and  it  can  likewise  be  readily  Latinized  into 
forms  which  are  fairly  euphonious. 
This  class  of  preparations  is  distinctly  different  from  all  other 
official  classes  and  is  of  sufficient  importance  to  warrant  the  adoption 
of  a  distinguishing  title.  This  leads  to  the  suggestion  that  we  adopt 
in  the  revision  of  the  N.  F.  as  the  Latin  title  Petroxqlinum  and 
synonyms  Petroxolin  and  Petrox.  In  oider  to  demonstrate  this 
point  these  terms  and  the  compounds  thereof  are  used  throughout 
this  paper. 
Anyone  who  has  worked  with  oleates,  knows  how  disagree- 
able and  persistent  is  the  odor  of  oleic  acid.  It  is  surprising  that 
in  this  entire  list  of  formulas  as  given  in  the  Br.  Ph.  Codex  and 
Erganzungsbuch  and  likewise  as  marketed  by  several  manufacturers 
as  proprietaries,  there  is  no  attempt  to  overcome  this  drawback  to 
their  use  by  the  addition  of  a  perfume.    The  addition  of  a  small 
