424 
EDINBURGH MEETING. 
Mr. Umney had always found the process answer very well, but, nevertheless, 
after about three months there was always a slight layer of colour. He always 
used the same quantity of water as iodine, filtering it, allowing the solution to 
form a layer at the bottom of the syrup, stirring, and bottling immediately. 
It would then keep for about three months without discoloration. 
Mr. Ince asked how Mr. Umney made the solution. 
Mr. Umney said after washing the metallic iron he added to the water an 
equal hulk of iodine, which produced sufficient heat to keep up the action. He 
then filtered the solution into measures and poured it into syrup already made, 
allowing the iodide of iron, being the denser, to collect upon the bottom. He 
then stirred the syrup and iodide together, and bottled immediately, so as to 
allow as little exposure as possible. 
Mr. Hills suggested that all difficulties would be avoided, supposing the syrup 
to keep only three months, if a fresh stock were made at intervals of two 
months. 
ON A SIMPLE MOULD EOR SUPPOSITORIES. 
BY MR. WILLIAM LAIRD, DUNDEE. 
In reading the report of Mr. Proctor’s paper on the “ Preparation of Suppo¬ 
sitories and Medicated Pessaries,” with the discussion thereon, as reported in the 
‘ Pharmaceutical Journal ’ for December, it struck me that some such plan as 
that adopted in moulding gelatine and sugar pastilles would do for these sub¬ 
stances, and be much easier and cheaper, if not more elegant, than that devised by 
Mr. Proctor. I waited, however, till Mr. Brady’s paper appeared in the January 
journal, thinking it just possible he might hit on the same idea. I see, how¬ 
ever, that he rather scouts the idea of extemporaneous plans for these forms of 
medicine. Some persons, however, are disinclined to purchase electroplated 
moulds, not requiring to prepare suppositories more than once or twice a year, 
if so often. 
The model I employ consists of six small conical-shaped pieces of boxwood, 
turned as nearly to a size as possible, and glued at equal distances on to a piece 
of mahogany. The matrix I propose using is finely-powdered starch or preci¬ 
pitated chalk, both being cheap, handy, and harmless. I fill a soda-powder 
•box with either powder, shake it down by tapping on the table, then press 
down the mould steadily, and remove it carefully : six nice moulds result. The 
suppository material being nearly cold it is poured into the holes, and in a few 
minutes the casts are ready ; not so highly finished certainly as those made in 
the metal moulds, but as nearly accurate in size and weight as may be. The 
more highly polished the wood cone, the neater the product. The same mould 
would also do very well for making “ sulphur pastilles,” in which case we would 
require a longer box than a soda-powder one, and have in it pasteboard divi¬ 
sions, to avoid injuring the first holes while making the second and subsequent 
ones. To make the larger size for vaginal pessaries the handle of a small brad¬ 
awl, the end of a test-tube, or a wood cone of appropriate size, pressed into the 
same powder, and carefully withdrawn, would make a good mould. 
EDINBURGH MEETING. 
Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain. —A meeting of this Society was held 
in St. George’s Hall, on Wednesday evening, 19th instant; Mr. J. R. Young, Pre¬ 
sident, in the chair. There was a good attendance. The chairman introduced Dr. 
Stevenson Macadam, who delivered a discourse on “ The Diffusion of Liquids and Gases,” 
with illustrations. He stated that nearly the whole of our knowledge of this important 
subject was derived from the admirable and exhaustive experiments and researches of 
