English edit

Etymology edit

First used at the Carron ironworks in Scotland (operating 1759 -1982) Carron oil was mentioned by Dr. Joseph F. Montgomery in his 1872 journal Burns and Scalds: Their Treatment, with Cases. Referring to a case in 1863, he used a carron oil in the treatment of three children badly burned in an explosion. the mixture had at the time been widely used in Scotland for the treatment of burns.

"Dr. Montgomery managed to apply oil and lime-water liniment. In fact, this type of oil was also being used during the same time on the other side of the world in Scotland (Lee 170). According to the British Medical Journal, lime-water liniment was often mixed with linseed oil to help with the burn and this combination became known as Carron oil in the world of burn medicine". 

Noun edit

Carron oil (uncountable)

  1. A lotion of linseed oil and limewater, applied to burns and scalds.
    • 1884 October 11, Chambers's Journal of Popular Literature, Science and Arts[1], London & Edinburgh: W. & R. Chambers, page 656:
      Carron oil—so called from the famous Carron ironworks, where it is extensively used—not only lessens the immediate pain, but covers the part with a film which effectually shuts out the air and prevents the skin getting dry.
      This Carron oil [] consists of equal parts of olive oil and lime-water. Olive oil, or salad or Lucca oil, is the oil best suited for the purpose; but if not easily obtainable, linseed oil answers the purpose very well.
    • 1938, Xavier Herbert, chapter IX, in Capricornia[2], New York: D. Appleton-Century, published 1943, page 148:
      Then Mrs. McLash, with woman's wisdom, came rushing from her bedroom with cotton-wool and bandages and iodine and chlorodyne and carron-oil.

https://historyengine.richmond.edu/episodes/view/6627#:~:text=According%20to%20the%20British%20Medical,the%20world%20of%20burn%20medicine.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “Carron oil”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)