34     PROCESS  FOR  OBTAINING  AND  PURIFYING  GLYCERINE. 
Startin,  into  the  Hospital  for  Skin  Diseases,  where  it  soon  came 
into  extensive  use. 
In  1846,  Mr.  Warington  took  out  a  patent  for  the  use  of 
glycerine  as  an  agent  in  preserving  animal  and  vegetable  sub- 
stances, and  tried  many  experiments  on  preserving  meat.  He 
informs  me  that  part  of  a  neck  of  mutton  preserved  in  glycerine 
for  several  months,  when'  cooked  by  Soyer,  was  partaken  of  by 
a  gentleman  with  great  satisfaction. 
Mr.  Warington,  I  believe,  first  applied  glycerine  in  mounting 
objects  for  the  microscope,  for  which  it  has  proved  so  successful. 
In  the  Lancet  of  June,  1849,  Mr.  Thomas  Wakley  published 
the  result  of  a  year's  experience  in  a  long  and  very  interesting 
paper  on  the  use  of  glycerine  in  diseases  of  the  ear,  giving  a 
number  of  cases  in  which  it  had  proved  a  cure  for  deafness.  In 
the  number  of  the  23d  of  the  same  month  his  results  were  con- 
firmed by  letters  from  Mr.  Erasmus  Wilson  and  Dr.  Gardner, 
the  latter  of  whom  drew  attention  to  the  fact  that  glycerine 
should  be  free,  not  only  from  any  trace  of  lead,  but  also  as  much 
as  possible  from  water.  His  theory  was,  however,  better  thare 
his  practice  ;  for  the  glycerine  he  speaks  of  using,  sp.  gr.  1.280, 
being  above  the  density  of  anhydrous  glycerine,  must  have  been 
impure. 
Isolated  applications  of  glycerine  had  thus  been  suggested ; 
but  M.  Cap  appears  to  have  been  the  first  to  see  its  extraordinary 
value  in  a  great  variety  of  medicinal  preparations.  His  very 
valuable  and  interesting  papers  were  published  in  the  Journal 
de  Pharmacie  ei  de  Chimie,  and  translated  into  the  Chemist,  I 
shall  give  two  short  extracts  from  them. 
M.  Cap,  in  his  first  paper,  {Journal  de  Pharmacie  ei  de 
Ckemie,  February,  1854,  Chemist,  April,  1854,)  begins  by  at- 
tacking the  process  of  purifying  glycerine  given  in  the  French 
chemical  books,  and  shows  its  defects.  He1  then  gives  his  own 
process,  remarks  upon  the  great  value  of  glycerine  in  skin  dis- 
eases, and  after  suggesting  a  number  of  valuable  uses,  proceeds 
as  follows  : — ■ 
"  Glycerine  dissolves  the  vegetable  acids,  the  deliquescent 
salts,  the  sulphates  of  potassa,  soda,  and  copper,  the  nitrates  of 
potassa  and  silver,  the  alkaline  chlorides,  potassa,  soda,  baryta, 
strontia,  bromine,  iodine,  and  even  oxide  of  lead.    It  dissolves 
