into a basis of hogs' lard, suet, and hens' grease. It was reputed useful for certain skin complaints, freckles, etc. In the P.L. 1678 some of the old ingredients were omitted, sugar of lead was substituted for the white lead and rose water, and frankincense and citron bark were added.
Nitrate of mercury ointment appeared first in the Edinburgh Pharmacopœia of 1722. It was made by dissolving mercury in a sufficient quantity of nitric acid, and adding the solution to melted lard gradually. This was not a satisfactory formula, and it was not until 1787 that anything similar was introduced into the P.L., when 1 oz. of mercury, 2 oz. of nitrous acid, and 1 lb. of lard were combined. This was intended, according to Christison, as an imitation of the well-known golden eye salve, which, however, was, as we know it, an ointment of the red oxide of mercury. Other authorities, Paris Dorvault, Gray, etc., have stated that Singleton's golden eye ointment was an ointment of sulphuret of arsenic, orpiment some say, realgar others. Pliny refers to the use of sandrach (probably realgar) as an application in ophthalmic affections.
Apparently the originator of the P.L. nitrate of mercury ointment was a Dr. Thomas Nettleton of Halifax, Yorkshire. In a pamphlet entitled "On a Safe and Efficacious Medicine in Sore Eyes and Eyelids," by Thomas Dawson, M.D., of Hackney, printed in 1782, the writer relates that he had heard of a yellow ointment specially good for sore eyes, which fifty years previously had been in the possession of Dr. Thomas Nettleton of Halifax, "whose merit as a man and a physician exceeds all encomium." One day one of Dr. Dawson's patients told him of a yellow ointment she had had from a Dr. Key, of Manchester, who had been a pupil of Dr.
