The first part1of my studies on ointments dealt with the penetration of fifteen bases into the intact human skin. The present report is a continuation of these studies. Salicylic acid was synthetically produced from phenol in the year 1860 by Kolbe and Lautermann,2and Kolbe devised a commercially practical synthetic process in 1874. Salicylic acid is an orthooxybenzoic acid.Only the orthobenzoic acid has pharmacologic action; the metabenzoic and parabenzoic acids are pharmacologically inactive.The solubility of salicylic acid is, according to Moncorps,3as follows: One part of salicylic acid dissolves in 13 parts of boiling water, in 444 parts of water at a temperature of 15 C., in 500 parts of water at 20 C., in 60 parts of glycerin, in 45 parts of olive oil and in 7 parts of castor oil. The antiseptic action of salicylic acid is about equivalent to that of phenol.