80 JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY OF COSMETIC CHEMISTS could do it better? Why do we not sit on hospital boards? Are there any professional men better quali- fied? What hospital board would be without a physician? Why should they not reason in the same fashion about a chemist ? Personally, I do not see much need for new organizations of scientists to deal with non-scientific matters (save perhaps in grave emergencies). I am, however, entirely willing to defend the right of other scientists to organize such groups, if they wish! My own view would be that we should use existing political or- ganizations for political ends. The chemist who joins the local Repub- lican Club in New Jersey or the local Democratic Club in Brooklyn will soon be able to wield political power where it counts at the local level. Chemists now have the admira- tion and respect of their neighbors, their associates, and their employ- ers. The profession of chemistry has come of age! We can pass on to the younger chemists a better professional status if as individual chemists and as groups of chemists we establish even more clearer than ever before that chemists are really concerned about the public interest and about the welfare of society. We must prove this by our deeds. We must even convince ourselves that these intentions should be openly stated and proudly demon- strated.

STUDIES ON THE PERMEABILITY OF THE SKIN TO MERCURY* By EDWIN P. LAUO From the Division of Pharmacology, Food and Drug Aidministration, Federal Security Atgency, 14,•ashington 25, D.C. THe. CZU•.ST•O• of permeabil- ity of the skin should hold par- ticular interest for the. cosmetic chemist. This is so because the usual older criteria of acceptability of skin preparations, namely good physical properties, may no longer be adequate in characterizing an ointment or lotion. We should like to know, for exampie,'whether am- moniated mercury applied as a surface blektch penetrates the skin, to what extent propylene glycol, or glycerol functions as a percutaneous vehicle, etc. I realize that the use of mercurials in cosmetic chemistry probably has a very limited interest. Therefore, in presenting the problem of mer- cury penetration in considerable de- tail, I wish to emphasize that the individual findings are important only to the extent that they help to illustrate the principles and tech- niques involved. My chief interest, therefore, is to demonstrate a new method of approach in evaluating the properties of ointments, and I hope that these studies may stimu- * Presented at the May 13,194•7, Meeting, New York City. late further work in this direction. The work on the skin perme- ability .of mercury which is to be reported here is the outgrowth of studies made during the war under OfFice of Scientific Research and Development contracts. The ob- ject of the study was to reinvesti- gate the use of mercurial ointments for venereal prophylaxis of skin and mucous membranes, and to de- velop more efficient preparations. This involved the screening of a considerable number of ointments containing mercury in the form. of calomel. For a calomel ointment to be acceptable, it had to possess (1) good mechanical properties, such as stability, spreadability, resist- ance to drying, etc. (2) a minimum of irritating properties (3) ability to penetrate the skin in amounts thei'apeutically effective both locally and systemically. The last of these three criteria was the one upon which Xve concentrated our atten- tion. That the skin is permeable to mercury has been well established, and its therapeutic usefulness ade- quately investigated by Cole and his