Glass bottle with glass stopper, containing clear liquid. Typed paper label reads "Glycerine". Glycerin is a colourless, sweet, syrupy liquid obtained from animal and vegetable oils and fats by saponification. Largely used in Med. as an ointment and emollient dressing, as a vehicle for medicaments, etc. Chemically it is a triatomic alcohol, the hydrate of glyceryl. Pears Soap, the oldest commercial glycerine soap, was first sold in 1789. The first medical mention found is Savory & Moore, Companion to the Medicine Chest, 1878, p.29: “Glycerin. Principally used externally for chapped hands, or nipples, fissures of the lips, or irritation of the skin of any kind.”