VASELINE  , or

mineral jelly, the Paraffinum mile of the British Pharmacopoeia, a commercial product of petroleum which is largely employed in pharmacy, both alone mad as a vehicle for the external application of medicinal agents, especi ally when local action rather than absorption is desired, and as a protective coating for metallic surfaces . " Vaseline " is a registered proprietary name (coined from the German Wasser, water, the Greek EAawv, oil, and the termination -ihe), and is strictly applicable only to the material manufactured. by one company (the Chesebrough Manufacturing Company), but it is commonly applied in a generic sense . As met with in, commerce, vaseline is a semi-solid mixture of hydrocarbons, having a melting-point usually ranging from a little below to a few degrees above ioo° F . It is colourless, or of a pale yellow colour, translucent, fluorescent, amorphous and devoid of taste and smell, It does not oxidize on exposure to the air, and is not readily acted on by chemical reagents . It is soluble, in chloroform, benzene, carbon bisulphide and oil of turpentine . It also dissolves in warm ether and in hot alcohol, but separates from the latter in flakes on cooling . The process employed by the Chesebrough Manufacturing Company the manufacture of vaseline is said to consist essentially in the careful distillation of selected crude petroleum, vacuum-stills being used to minimize dissociation, and filtration of the residue through granular animal charcoal . The filters are either steam-jacketed, or are placed in rooms heated to ieo° F., or higher . The first runnings from the filters are colourless, and when they become coloured to a certain extent they are collected for use as a lubricant under the name of filtered cylinder oil." (B .