230 
ON SUPPOSITORIES AND MEDICATED PESSARIES. 
Pharmaceutists held in Paris, in August last, it appeared that delegates were present 
from France, Holland, the United States, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, 
Sweden, Prussia, South Germany, Hungary, Denmark, and Egypt. It was decided that 
the balloting should be by States. There were forty votes in the aggregate, four of 
which were given to the United States. The question of a universal Pharmacopoeia for 
all nations was debated at length, and after various minor points were discussed, such 
as the influence of different climates upon medical preparations, and the proper language 
for a universal standard, the question was taken upon the feasibility of a Pharmacopoeia 
for all nations. All the votes were in the affirmative, except that of the United States, 
which was in the negative, on the ground that the wide difference of opinion between 
the European countries and the United States, in regard to the use of many drugs, would 
prevent the favourable consideration of the proposed work by the pharmaceutical bodies 
of that country. 
Three questions were propounded for discussion. First, “ Shall there be unlimited 
liberty in pharmacy as in ordinary mercantile business ? shall there be free practice, with 
the guarantee of a diploma and personal responsibility under the common law, or shall 
there be a wise regulation by law designed to ensure the public interest and protect the 
pharmaceutist?” The question was subdivided. All the delegates voted against the 
first view. All voted against the second view but the United States; and on the third 
all voted in the affirmative, except the United States. The second question was, “ Is it 
proper to limit the indefinite multiplication of pharmaceutist shops?” The United 
States voted in the negative, all the rest in the affirmative. 
The third question was, “ Is it proper to demand the creation of institutions of a dis¬ 
ciplinary character, destined to maintain the character of the profession of pharmacy by 
ensuring its correct practice, and to represent and protect it in all its exterior relations ?” 
upon which all the delegates voted in the affirmative. 
Some of the speakers having alluded to American pharmacy in a way calculated to 
leave a wrong impression, the delegates from that country presented a written statement 
of the position of pharmacy as a science in that country, which was received with great 
enthusiasm. 
The Committee on Scientific Queries made their report, propounding the number of 
scientific questions for consideration and for discussion at the next annual meeting. The 
reading of answers propounded at the last annual meeting was then proceeded with. 
In the report on the “Exhibition of Pharmaceutical Objects” we observe,—“P. W. 
Bedford, New York, exhibited a photographic album containing seventy-five photographs 
of members of this Association ; also a frame with fourteen photographs of prominent 
members of the British Pharmaceutical Conference ; an engraving of the interior of 
J. Bell’s laboratory in London in 1840.” 
The proceedings of the Association were brought to a close by an excursion down the 
Harbour, which appears to have given general satisfaction. 
ORIGINAL AND EXTRACTED ARTICLES. 
ON SUPPOSITORIES AND MEDICATED PESSARIES. 
BY BARNARD S. PROCTOR. 
Now that the dispensing of suppositories is becoming a matter of frequent 
occurrence, it is highly desirable to give publicity to anything which will facili¬ 
tate the operation and diminish the uncertainty which has hitherto attended it. 
I therefore beg to offer to my pharmaceutical brethren a few remarks upon the 
methods of manipulation which, after sundry trials, I have found most con¬ 
venient. 
The difficulties to be overcome may be thus enumerated :— 
The composition must be firm, but readily fusible, not liable to split, and not 
apt to adhere to the mould. 
The active ingredients must be so diffused that there shall be an equal 
quantity in each suppository, whether six or sixty have to be dispensed at one 
operation, and that each suppository shall be uniform throughout its substance. 
