THE NEW YORK JOURNAL OF PHARMACY 



SIMPLE METHOD FOR FILLING 

 AMPOULES. 



By J. Leon Lascoff. 



About 30 years ago Limousin intro- 

 duced the ampoule as a convenient 

 method of preserving hypodermic prep- 

 arations. Ampoules were in use in all 

 foreign countries, but very little known 

 in this country. Only lately ampoules 

 became known here, and they are now 

 ejftensively used by the medical profes- 

 sion, and prepared by different Ameri- 

 can manufacturers. In France and 

 Italy ampoules were used extensively. 

 In 1905, in most of the Russian phar- 

 macies, the ampoules were dispensed on 

 prescriptions. Their process of filling 

 ampoules was b}' the use of hypodermic 

 syringe, or by heating. The retail phar- 

 macist of this country had very little 

 idea how the ampoule should be pre- 

 pared. 



yU-. Caswell A. Mayo, before the .\. 

 Ph. A., Local Branch, described that 

 ampoules could be filled by pipette, 

 burette, hypodermic syringe, vacuum, or 

 by aspiration with the aid of an Auer 

 apparatus. Several papers on ampoules 

 were read bv dififerent pharmacists, and 

 several apparatus for filling same were 

 suggested. Some interesting papers were 

 presented bv Kurt Beysen, also by Stein- 

 breuck. and others. 



Two years ago I started to experi- 

 ment with ampoules and devised a sim- 

 ple apparatus for filling them. I used 

 a large test tube made of thick glass 

 and especially thick bottom, and placed 

 same in a holder (similar to a ginger- 

 ale holder) put in the liquid, which was 

 previously sterilized, put in the required 

 number of empty ampoules, attached a 

 large rubber cork to fit the mouth of 



the lest tube. In the middle of the rub- 

 l)er stopper I put a glass tube with a 

 stop-cock, connected same to a small 

 rubber tubing. Wi'th the aid of on aspi- 

 rator I removed the air (vacuum) and 

 in a few seconds the ampoules were 

 filled. After that I sealed the stem of 

 the ampoule in a Bunsen burner, then 

 sterilized by putting in hot mineral oil. 

 As I found that the sterilizers were very 

 expensive, I bought a little metal closet 

 (on the style of a bread box) put in 

 an electric stove (or heater), and at- 

 tached a thermometer (to regulate tem- 

 l)erature) ; the sterilizer served as good 

 as any of the more expensive sterilizers 

 that we have on the market to-dav. 



From the above description any phar- 

 macist can easily and conscientiously put 

 up ampoules in sterile form. In fact, I 

 dispensed a good many hundreds in my 

 establishment with very good results. 



At the Nashville meeting of the A. 

 I'h. A., while I was Chairman of the 

 Section on Practical Pharmacy and Dis- 

 pensing. I read a paper on Ampoules of 

 Camphorated Oil. This paper will ap- 

 ]:)ear in the A. Ph. A. Bulletin in the near 

 future. Since then I had a good many 

 requests from pharmacists of diflferenl 

 States to send them a description of the 

 apparatus and the sterilizer, which re- 

 quests were complied with. 



Since then, I again started to experi- 

 ment with ampoules of other natures, 

 such as sol. mercury salicylate in alboline. 



During the first part of September of 

 last year, while accidental poisonings 

 were occurring with bichloride of mer- 

 curv tablets, and while pharmacists were 

 trying to find some device to prevent 

 such occurrences, and the dangers re- 

 sulting from the taking of one of the 



