GLYCERINE  A  SUBSTITUTE  FOR  OILS,  ETC.  IN  OINTMENTS.  25o 
in  the  condition  most  favorable  for  absorption :  and,  lastly,  it 
is  not  liable  to  rancidity ;  that  is,  as  far  as  I  have  yet  been 
able  to  ascertain,  the  date  of  my  first  preparation  being  July 
30th,  and  it  having  as  yet  presented  no  evidence  of  this  kind  of 
change. 
The  proportions  I  employ  with  such  favorable  results,  are  : 
Glycerine,  1  f.  oz. 
Starch  powder     70  grs. 
and  the  entire  process  consists  in  mixing  the  ingredients  cold, 
and  heating  the  mixture  gradually  to  about  240°  Farenheit, 
constantly  stirring. 
This  constitutes  a  basis,  with  which  may  be  produced  prepa- 
rations corresponding  to  most  of  the  cerates  and  ointments  of  the 
Pharmacopoeia,  but  free  from  the  special  peculiarities  to  which  i 
have  before  alluded. 
As  the  compound  word  amylo-glycerine,  though  perhaps  the 
most  appropriate,  would  from  its  length  be  somewhat  inconve- 
nient, I  have  adopted  the  term  «  Plasma,"*  and  by  this  name 
FKOM  A  CORRESPONDENT. 
*  The  word  Plasma  is  derived  from  the  Greek  7r*a<r<m,  I  form,  and  in 
its  ordinary  significance,  means  something  formed  or  moulded. 
It  was  however  employed,  occasionally  at  least,  in  a  very  different 
sense,  and  in  one  which  renders  its  proposed  application  to  an  ointment 
not  quite  unobjectionable.    We  allude  to  Plasma  as  signifying-  a  tvash 
for  the  throat  or  a  gargle,  as  in  the  following  lines  of  Persius  : — 
Scilicet  haec  populo,  pexusque  togaque  recenti, 
Et  natalitia  tandem  cum  sardonyche  albus, 
Sede  leges  celsa,  liquido  cum  plasmate  guttur 
Mobile  collueris,  patranti  fractus  ocello. 
Sat.  I.,  v.,  15—18. 
Thus  rendered  by  Drummond  : — 
See  at  the  desk  the  pale  declaimer  stand  ; 
The  ruby  beaming  on  his  lilly  hand  ; 
Behind  his  back  his  wanton  tresses  flow  ; 
With  Tyrian  dyes  his  splendid  garments  glow ; 
His  pliant  throat  the  liquid  gargle  clears  ; 
His  languid  eye  lasciviously  leers. 
Facciolati,  after  noticing  the  other  and  more  usual  significations  of 
Plasma,  says  : — 
"Est  etiam  potio  ex  dulcioribus  quibusdam  rebus  composita  qua  col- 
luebant  os  et  fauces  ad  fingendam  vocem,  ut  liquidaesset.  claraet,  sauvis  : 
gargarisma  per  la  voce."— Pers.  Sat.  I.,  v.,  17.  (Totius  Latinitatis  Lexi- 
con, t.  iii.)  bee  also  Ainsworth,  Thesaurus  Lingual  Latinai}  Ed.  1752, 
in  verbum. 
