624  Ether  for  Medication  by  the  Skin.  {AmS%t&rm' 
in  not  forming  crystalline  addition  compounds  with  halogen  acids, 
is  certainly  different  from  caryophyllene.  It  remains  to  be  seen 
whether  this  frequently  occurring  hydrocarbon  is  related  to  clovene. 
The  product  obtained  by  dehydration  of  patchouli  camphor,  or, 
more  correctly,  patchouli  alcohol,  may  be  regarded  as  a  distinct 
sesquiterpene.  From  its  peculiar  cedar  smell,  differing  altogether 
from  the  previously  described  hydrocarbons,  there  is  some  reason  to 
suspect  relation  to  cedrene,  which  occurs  so  abundantly  in  cedar 
oil,  but  the  determination  of  this  question  must  be  left  for  future 
inquiry. 
For  the  identification  of  sesquiterpenes  the  most  useful  compounds 
will  be  the  hydrates,  which  may  be  regarded  as  the  alcohols  of  the 
sesquiterpene  series,  standing  in  the  same  relation  to  the  hydro- 
carbons as  terpineol  does  to  dipentene.  These  hydrates,  hitherto 
designated  by  the  inappropriate  generic  name  of  "  camphors"  will 
form  the  subject  of  further  investigation  in  the  laboratory  of  the 
Chemical  Institute  of  the  University  of  Gbttingen.  The  experi- 
mental part  of  the  investigation,  described  in  the  foregoing  abstract, 
was  carried  out  by  Mr.  W.  Walker,  of  Pittsburg,  in' conjunction  with 
Professor  Wallach. 
NOTE  ON  ETHER  AS  A  MENSTRUUM  IN  MEDICATION 
BY  THE  SKIN.1* 
By  Sir  James  Sawyer,  M.D.,  Lond.,  F.R.C.P 
Consulting  Physician  to  the  Queen's  Hospital,  Birmingham. 
May  I  especially  invite  the  attention  of  pharmacists  to  the  advan- 
tages of  ether  as  a  menstruum,  for  the  preparation  of  remedies 
which  are  designed  to  act  through  the  skin  ?  Confirmed  and 
extended  as  my  views  have  been  by  experience  in  practice,  I  venture 
to  think  the  proposals  I  made  to  the  medical  profession,  two  years 
ago,  concerning  this  use  of  ether,  indicate  a  practical  advance  in  our 
remedial  resources  which  promises  further  useful  application,  both 
in  human  and  in  comparative  therapeutics.2  Not  every  officinal 
compound  "  for  outward  application  only  "  can  be  accredited  with 
percutaneous  energy.  Until  ethereal  tinctures  and  liniments  were 
used,  we  were  accustomed  in  medical  practice  to  present  many 
1  From  the  Pharmaceutical  Journal  and  Transactions,  Oct.  15,  1892,  p.  301. 
2  See  the  Lancet,  May  17  and  June  20,  1890,  and  my  "  Contributions  to 
Practical  Medicine,"  of  the  same  year. 
