THE 
AMERICAN  JOURNAL  OF  PHARMACY. 
JANUARY,  1873. 
OLEATE  OF  MERCURY  AND  MORPHIA. 
Br  Charles  Rice. 
This  combination,  suggested  by  Prof.  John  Marshall,  F.R.S.,  and 
first  prepared  by  Mr.  Frank  Clowes,  has  been  in  considerable  demand 
in  this  city,  but  its  preparation  offers  some  difficulties,  which  do  not 
seem  to  have  occurred  to  Mr.  Clowes,  owing  to  a  difference  either  in 
the  character  or  quality  of  the  solvent,  or  in  the  manipulation. 
In  using  pure  oleic  acid  as  a  solvent  for  oxide  of  mercury  no  dif- 
ficulty is  encountered,  the  oxide- — both  the  red  and  the  yellow  varie- 
ties— being  completely  soluble  in  it,  without  any,  or  with  only  a  very 
slight  reduction  to  the  metallic  state.*  This  is  not  the  case,  however, 
with  the  commercial  oleic  acid,  at  least  that  which  I  have  been  able 
to  procure  in  this  city.  It  is,  like  the  English,  a  residuary  product 
in  the  manufacture  of  stearin  candles,  commercially  termed  "  Red 
Oil,"  has  a  deep  sherry-wine  color  and  a  peculiar  greasy  odor ;  ex- 
posure to  moderate  cold  causes  the  separation  of  a  considerable 
amount  of  solid  acids,  consisting  chiefly  of  palmitic  acid.  Its  sp.  gr. 
•is  0.895  at  62°  F.  This  substance  certainly  dissolves  the  oxide  of 
mercury,  but  it  requires  a  greater  degree  of  heat  than  the  pure  acid 
to  effect  the  solution,  while  at  the  same  time  some  of  the  oxide  is  in- 
variably reduced  to  the  metallic  state,  owing  to  the  presence  of  some 
readily  oxidisable  impurities  in  the  acid,  or  perhaps  due  to  the  oxida- 
tion of  the  acid  itself.  The  amount  of  reduction  is  in  direct  propor. 
tion  to  the  degree  of  temperature  employed,  as  might  have  been 
anticipated,  and  was  proved  by  a  number  of  experiments  : 
*The  only  objection  to  the  employment  of  the  pure  acid  is  its  high  price. 
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