Origin. - The fixed oil expressed from the fruit of Olea europcea L., a shrubby, thorny, medium-sized tree, indigenous in Western Asia, but cultivated in the countries bordering on the Mediterranean and in the Southern United States, California, and several South American and other countries.

Description and Properties. - A pale-yellow or light greenish-yellow, oily liquid, having a slight, peculiar odor, and a nutty, oleaginous taste, with a faintly acrid after-taste. Very sparingly soluble in alcohol, but readily soluble in ether, chloroform, or carbon disulphide. Olive oil should be kept in well-stoppered bottles, in a cool place.

Dose. - Freely.

Physiological Action and Therapeutics. - Olive oil is a singularly bland and agreeable oil, and very useful as an emollient and demulcent. It serves as an efficient protective to the skin, from which it is readily absorbed. As a lenitive and protective in cases of superficial wounds, bruises, excoriations, burns, bites and stings of insects, sprains, etc., it serves a valuable purpose.

It is extensively employed by dermatologists to soften and facilitate the removal of crusts, scales, and epithelial debris of various cutaneous disorders.

The application of warm olive oil, made with gentle friction, to painful and engorged mammary glands during pregnancy and after parturition generally lessens the pain and swelling.

The drug is an efficient palliative in painful deglutition, and is sometimes injected into the rectum as a soothing emollient in dysentery, and to destroy "seatworms" and allay the irritation produced by them.

Frequently the forcible injection into the urethra of olive oil will dilate an unusually tight stricture, partly overcoming the difficulty to the introduction of a sound.

Olive oil is habitually employed as a lubricant for sounds, catheters, specula, pessaries, etc.

Where a fat or an oil is not contraindicated, olive oil is one of the most efficient demulcents to administer in cases of poisoning from corrosive irritating drugs.

Olive oil is a useful and pleasant laxative, and is used to a considerable extent for that purpose. The oil is also credited with facilitating the discharge of gall-stones. It unquestionably increases the secretion of bile, which may account for its apparent influence in favoring the expulsion of these concretions.