ON SUPPOSITORIES AND MEDICATED PESSARIES. 
231 
The size arid shape must be uniform throughout any series, but capable of 
variation at the will of the prescriber. 
And these requirements must be met with as little expenditure of time as 
possible, both on commercial grounds and for the convenience of the patient. 
The first requirements, those depending upon composition, are already re¬ 
moved from the province of the pharmaceutist, the Pharmacopoeia having sup¬ 
plied us with a formula which leaves no difficulty with regard to the properties 
of the basis except its disposition to adhere to the mould. This adhesiveness is 
one great source of annoyance, and various methods have been suggested for 
overcoming it. 
The suppositories, when cast in the usual metal moulds, frequently adhere so 
closely as to be torn in two when the mould is opened, and this is mere espe¬ 
cially the case if ample time cannot be allowed for them to become thoroughly 
cold and hard. 
If moist clay be adopted as a matrix, there is little fear of the suppositories 
being broken in the extraction, unless they are moved before quite hard. 
They may be dug out with a stiff kuife, but are not in condition for use 
without washing, and all this is wasteful of the most costly element in their 
production—time. 
After various expedients had been tried, such as rubbing the metal mould 
with oil or glycerine, in the hope of preventing adhesion, I adopted, with the 
greatest satisfaction, little cones of tinfoil, setting them in the gun-metal 
mould ; all chance of adhesion is thus prevented and the foil is readily removed 
when the suppositories are cold, without any fear of splitting them. Having so 
far succeeded, I was tempted to return to the clay matrix with the view of pre¬ 
paring a larger number at a time than my metal mould was constructed for. 
The foil cones are easily constructed so close as not to allow the escape of the 
melted material, even if they are not imbedded in an impermeable material; 
the tinfoil itself may therefore be now considered the mould, and the next 
problem is to find a convenient mode of supporting it during the process. The 
soft wet clay which I had been using was found inconvenient, from the foil 
adhering to the clay so closely that the suppository could not be removed before 
it was thoroughly hard, and then required to be dug out as before described. 
Trial was next made with several powdered materials, such as sand, French chalk, 
or powdered clay. It is difficult, however, to avoid the contamination of the 
suppositories with these powders, which are all objectionable, more especially 
the sand, besides which, they do not afford a support to the mould sufficiently 
firm to prevent it being bulged out of shape, and they were all in turn dis¬ 
carded ; clay, in its solid form, either tough or hard, being much more suitable. 
There is nothing more simple than to take a box of clay and make conical holes 
in it suitable for supporting the tinfoil moulds. I at first used moist clay 
and kept it plastic by mixing with glycerine, and if the shape of the supposi¬ 
tories is to be changed from time to time, the plastic clay is most convenient, 
but if one form is adopted for general use, there is no objection to the clay 
matrix becoming hard, for if it cracks, that is no importance, seeing that it is 
only used as a support for the tinfoil. 
If the conical depressions are made in moist clay, they are most readily 
formed by using a model of a suppository as a dibble. One hole made too 
near another wiil bulge in the sides of its neighbour, and in that case it is ne¬ 
cessary to put the dibble into each a second time after they have all been 
roughly formed. 
The model of the suppository which is to be used as a dibble and upon which 
the tinfoil moulds are to be formed, will now require a few words. If the 
usual conical shape is desired, it may easily be extemporized by softening the 
end of a rod of gutta-percha, or of a stick of sealing-wax, and pressing it into 
