It splits it into a fatty acid and glycerine, but seems to have no further action.
In 1782 he published some experiments on the formation of ether, and in 1783 examined the properties of glycerine, which he had discovered seven years before.
Some sufferers from constipation find that they get greater relief from salts dissolved in water, or from natural aperient water taken on rising in the morning, and others again find that the best way of opening the bowels is to inject one or two drachms of glycerine into the rectum, or use it as a suppository.
If this course is inconvenient, some liquid of low freezing-point, such as glycerine, may be mixed with the water.
Soaking the fibre with glycerine, so that the moisture it absorbs does not change so much with the hygrometric state of the air, is of some advantage, but does not entirely remove the difficulty.
