Use. The above are used to colour moustaches, eyebrows, whiskers, &c., as well as to keep the hair in its place. The labels on the packets before us have—“pour fixer et lisser les cheveux.” The application must be renewed daily, as the cosmetique is gradually removed by friction, and perfectly so by soap-and-water.
COSMOLINE. Syn. Cosmolin. Under the names of Cosmoline and Vaseline some fatty substances melting at 32° to 85° or even 95° C. have lately appeared in commerce. They are very variable mixtures of solid paraffin with paraffin oil, neutral oil, lubricating oil, &c., and are the residues left after the distillation of petroleum slightly purified by means of charcoal. (Miller.)
Cosmoline has been examined by Mr Naylor, who states his belief that it consists of a mixture of paraffins. Comparing Mr Naylor’s results with those obtained by Mr Moss, in an analysis made of a body imported from America, and called “Vaseline,” there seems little reason to doubt that if this latter and “Cosmoline” are not the same substance, they differ from each other only in a very minute degree, this difference not improbably being due to the varying temperature employed in producing them. Cosmoline was found to have the composition:—
| Hydrocarbons (paraffins?) | 98·59 |
| Moisture | 0·69 |
| Ash | 0·04 |
| ——— | |
| 99·32 |
It melts at 40°C., and has a sp. gr. of 0·866 at 45°C. The composition of Vaseline is as follows:—
| Hydrocarbons (paraffins?) | 97·54 |
| Moisture | 0·50 |
| Ash | 0·05 |
| ——— | |
| 98·09 |
It melts at 37° C., and has a sp. gr. of 0·840 at 55° C.
Both bodies are pale yellow in colour, translucent, slightly fluorescent, and semi-solid, and both are alike insoluble in water, slightly soluble in alcohol, and freely so in ether, whilst they are unaffected by hydrochloric acid and solution of potash. The processes by which it is believed cosmoline and vaseline are obtained, consist in separating the various volatile hydrocarbons from crude petroleum by distillation, the residuum is then brought into contact with superheated steam, and finally purified by filtration through animal charcoal. Vaseline has been also named “petroleum jelly.” Professor Otto, of New York, says that vaseline is very extensively used throughout the United States, as a substitute for lard in the preparation of ointments, a purpose for which the freedom from smell, the negative properties and unalterable qualities when exposed to the air, of both substances, seem highly to commend their superiority to lard for this purpose. They have also been employed very successfully for lubricating surgical instruments, and we believe are, when properly scented, used largely as the basis of hair pomades, whilst their suitability for the preparation of suppositories and pessaries has been urged.
This has been demonstrated by the much greater length of time during which certain ointments made by them remain fresh and undecomposed when compared with those in which lard was used.
The ‘American Journal of Pharmacy’ for March, 1877, gives the following formula as a substitute for cold cream, by E. J. Davidson:—Cosmoline, 24 oz.; white wax, spermaceti, of each 12 oz.; glycerin, 3 fl. oz.; oil of geranium, 1 fl. dr.