Aru.  Jour.  Pharm. 
May,  1905. 
Ointment  of  Mercuric  Nitrate. 
233 
OINTMENT  OF  MERCURIC  NITRATE.1 
By  Clarence  O.  Snaveey.2 
A  CONSIDERATION  OF  THE  OFFICIAL  PROCESS  WITH  REFERENCE  TO  AN 
IMPROVED  ONE. 
Among  the  official  preparations  there  are  many  of  such  inestima- 
ble value  in  the  treatment  of  disease  that  we  are  puzzled  oftentimes 
to  understand  why  physicians  will  look  elsewhere  to  find  remedial 
agents  the  nature  of  which  is  a  closely  guarded  secret.  But,  alas  ! 
there  are  many  of  these  to  be  found  who  are  even  satisfied  to  con- 
sider such  knowledge  alienable.  ■  When  a  preparation  receives  a 
place  in  the  United  States  Pharmacopoeia,  it  has  surely  been  deemed 
of  sufficient  merit. 
Probably  no  official  preparation  has  been  more  carefully  studied 
than  the  familiar  ointment  of  mercuric  nitrate,  or,  as  it  is  more 
commonly  called  (on  account  of  its  color)  citrine  ointment.  Not 
only  is  it  therapeutically  of  great  importance,  but  also  none  the 
less  pharmaceutical^  and  chemically  interesting.  It  is  then  with 
reluctance  we  would  attempt  to  suggest  changes  relative  to  a  prepa- 
ration than  which  there  is  none  more  difficult  in  the  United  States 
Pharmacopoeia  to  make,  and  which  might  present,  after  suggesting 
changes,  similar  difficulties  to  encounter  by  all  who  find  such  in  the 
present  official  formula. 
In  this  ointment  the  base  is  a  butyraceous  substance,  obtained 
through  the  action  of  nitric  acid  upon  lard  oil.  The  classic  researches 
that  have  been  made  upon  oils  and  fats  from  time  to  time  have 
shown  us  that  the  effect  of  nitric  acid  upon  fixed  oils  depends  not 
only  upon  composition  of  the  latter,  the  presence  of  coloring  mat- 
ter, etc.,  but  likewise  upon  the  strength  of  the  acid  and  the  tempera- 
ture. 
That  principle  of  fixed  oils,  whether  of  animal  or  vegetable  ori- 
gin, which  is  liquid  at  ordinary  temperature,  is  termed  olein,  or 
elain.     It  is  extremely  difficult  to  obtain  olein  pure,  as  it  is  almost 
1  Read  at  the  twenty-seventh  annual  meeting  of  the  Pennsylvania  Pharma- 
ceutical Association,  June  21-23,  1904. 
2  The  authorship  of  this  paper  is  credited  to  Mr.  J.  H.  Redsecker,  Lebanon, 
Pa. ,  in  the  recent  Proceedings  of  the  Pennsylvania  Pharmaceutical  Associa- 
tion, but  this  is  erroneous,  as  we  are  assured  by  Mr.  Redsecker,  he  merely 
having  presented  the  paper  in  Mr.  Snavely's  behalf. 
