The following report was submitted to the Council by a referee and its publication authorized by the Council.
W. A. Puckner, Secretary.
Petroleum has been in use as a medicine from time immemorial. It was known to Herodotus 400 years before Christ and is mentioned by Plutarch, Dioscorides, Pliny and other early writers. It was extensively used by the Arabians and evidently played an important part in the practice of medicine in India, being known to the Bengalese as Muthe Katel. The raw product was the substance used in earlier times and differed much in character and composition, as obtained from different sources.
As an internal remedy it was early employed in chronic pulmonary affections, in obstinate skin diseases, in rheumatism, and for the expelling of tapeworms. It was extensively used for these several purposes in France under the name of “Oleum Gabianum” and in North America as “Seneka oil.”
The internal use of the refined product may be traced to a patent granted to Robert A. Chesebrough of New York, in June, 1872, for the manufacture of a “new and useful product from petroleum, named vaseline.” This name was originally applied only to a semisolid preparation, but later a liquid product known as liquid vaseline was marketed and for a time exploited as a cure for coughs, colds, consumption and a number of other diseases and conditions.
The liquid petrolatum has since become known under a variety of names, proprietary and otherwise, in addition to being used as a substitute or an adulterant for other, more costly, fats and oils. Some of the names applied to the product are:
| Adepsine oil | Neutralol |
| Amilee | Olo |
| Atoleine | Paraffin Oil |
| Atolin | Paroline |
| Blandine | Petralol |
| Crysmalin | Petro |
| Deeline | Petrolax |
| Glyco | Petrolia |
| Glycoline | Petronol |
| Glymol | Petrosio |
| Heavy petroleum oil | Rock Oil |
| Liquid Albolene | Russian liquid petrolatum |
| Liquid Cosmoline | Russian mineral oil |
| Liquid Fossiline | Russian paraffin oil |
| Liquid Geoline | Russol |
| Liquid Paraffin | Saxol |
| Liquid Petrolatum | Terraline |
| Liquid Saxoline | Terralbolia |
| Liquid Vaseline | Usoline |
| Mineral Glycerin | Water-white mineral oil |
| Mineral Oil | White paraffin oil. |
A preparation similar to that official in the Pharmacopeia of the United States as liquid petrolatum has been included in many, if not all, of the foreign pharmacopeias, the official titles under which this preparation is recognized being as follows:
Petrolatum Liquidum, U. S. Pharmacopeia; Paraffinum Liquidum, pharmacopeias of Great Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, Japan, Belgium, Austria, Denmark, Switzerland, Sweden, Servia, Italy, Hungary and Russia; Oleum Paraffinae, Spanish Pharmacopeia; Vaselinum Liquidum, French Pharmacopeia, and Oleum Vaselini (as a synonym) pharmacopeias of Denmark and Russia.