PHARMACEUTICAL NOTICES. 
91 
the addition of one-fourth to one-eighth, or even one six- 
teenth of glycerin, to any lotion, poultice, or external ap- 
plication, all the indications 1 have mentioned were fufilled, 
and that such application never became perfectly hard and 
dry, whilst it soothed and tranquillized the diseased part, 
by attracting moisture from the air, and thus keeping up a 
constant evaporation from the surface; its antiseptic proper- 
ties, also, in great degree, prevented the unpleasant odour 
of vitiated secretions or discharges, whilst its undrying 
nature, did not permit the formation of hard scabs or in- 
crustations, which, it is well known, very often interfere 
with the healing process, and occasion much pain on their 
removal. I have had little experience in the use of glycerin 
internally, but it is a mild stimulant, antiseptic, and demul- 
cent, and might be employed to sweeten many articles of 
food or drinks, for those invalids whose disordered digestive 
organs would forbid the use of sugar. Pills made with the 
addition of a few drops of glycerin never become dry, and 
syrups and extract by its means, are kept from evaporation 
to dryness, as also from fermentation, and the formation of 
cryptogramic vegetation or mouldiness, and many other 
such uses for this agent, will not fail to suggest themselves. 
I shall briefly enumerate some diseases of the skin, in which 
1 have employed glycerin with most benefit and success. 
These are pityriasis or dandriff, (particularly that form of 
the disease which I have termed F. cotigefii/a,) \e\)ra, psori- 
asis, Vichew (in its dry, advanced stage,) impetigo inveterata, 
and prurigo. I have found glycerin, also, a useful addition 
to lotions in the incrusted form of lupus or herpes excedens, 
and to various syphilitic or strumous eruptions, which 
have a tendency to produce fetid discharges, and hard 
crusts; for which reason it has proved of service in the 
scabbing stage of small-pox. As a wash for the hair, or 
for chapped hands, face, or nipples, combined with a little 
rose water, and a few grains of the borax, (the glycerin 
being in the proportion of 1-1 6th,) this remedy furnishes, per- 
