32:2 
PHARMACEUTICAL MEETING. 
The new edition of the British Pharmacopoeia has happily, and I consider 
rightly, settled the matter of size as far as suppositories are concerned, and the 
alterations of the formulae from those in the former edition are not the least of 
the many improvements for which we have to thank the practical men who 
have been chiefly concerned in its revision. The weight ordered, fifteen grains, 
gives a medium size, not unmanageably large, and still sufficiently so for the 
active medicines usually prescribed for administration in this way. In excep¬ 
tional cases, when bulkier remedies are desired, (e. g. powdered cubebs,) the 
dose can be divided and two suppositories used,—a perfectly unobjectionable 
course, and one which tends to the preservation of uniformity. No one now 
w.ould think of substituting a ten-grain bolus for two five-grain pills. 
In respect to pessaries there is more difference in opinion. Some obste¬ 
tricians complain that the usual size (5ij) is needlessly large, and apt to cause dis¬ 
comfort to the patient from non-retention after melting. For several sorts 
half the bulk of menstruum would be sufficient, but the question remains 
whether it is worth while to recognize more than one size for this occasional 
advantage. There are on the table specimens of one-drachm pessaries, and a 
mould for their preparation. Some houses prepare both sizes, and if those who 
are in the habit of prescribing them would order either one or other, the hardship 
of keeping two moulds would not be great. At the same time, the more generally 
employed size, two drachms, should still be regarded as the normal weight, and 
that to be adopted unless otherwise indicated in the prescription. 
Such characters as size and form may seem unimportant, and so far as the 
object of the medicine is concerned this is doubtless true; but as they happen 
to be the particular points by which the patient estimates the care and know¬ 
ledge of the dispenser, and draws comparisons between the practice of one 
establishment and another, they may easily affect the credit of the pharmaceutist, 
and cease to be trivial matters. 
As to material. It is now generally acknowledged that theobroma oil is the 
best excipient; indeed it appears to fulfil every desired condition. I am 
aware that stearine is still employed for pessaries by those who urge its whiter 
colour and lower price as their ground of preference. The assumed superiority 
in appearance is a mere fancy, which cannot be weighed against any substan¬ 
tial gain ; and the few formula in which the colour is not influenced by the 
active medicament are just as sightly when prepared with the bright yellow 
cacao butter as with the white stearine. The difference in cost ought not to be 
considered in a question of this sort. On the other hand, stearine is much 
more readily affected by chemical reagents, and is correspondingly more 
liable to become rancid than theobroma oil, and in its relations of hardness to 
fusibility it is not so well adapted for the purpose in view. I have seen atropia 
pessaries prepared with stearine rancid at the end of a few weeks, and others 
containing iodide of lead, smelling strongly of decomposed fat within a few days. 
Only two or three substances in common use appear to affect theobroma oil when 
mixed in medicinal proportions. Acetate of lead occasionally, after the lapse 
of time, causes slight decomposition, and nitrate of silver is acted upon in 
varying degree ; but in both much depends upon care exercised in preparation. 
Perchloride of iron, in the proportion of 5 to 7 per cent., gives a soft, elastic, 
greenish mass, which after a few days becomes yellow, and regains the original 
consistence of cacao butter. 
The experiments on which my previous paper was founded were performed 
entirely in winter weather, and the recommendation then made to add a 
small proportion of lard, was one of the results of temperature. It is, per¬ 
haps, necessary to say that I have come entirely to the views expressed by one 
or two members on that occasiou in a preference for the pure theobroma oil 
without admixture. I notice in a discussion at the Boston meeting of the 
