546 
PHARMACEUTICAL MEETING. 
easy manipulation ; and the operator has the opportunity of rubbing down in a 
mortar the morphia, tannic acid, or other medicinal substance employed, with 
a portion of the lard, and thoroughly mixing it before adding it to the melted 
mass, thereby saving himself much subsequent trouble, and rendering the use of 
sugar or other hard substance unnecessary. 
As the observations I have to make on the modes of forming or making up 
suppositories apply equally to medicated pessaries, I may make a few remarks 
on the latter before dealing with the considerations arising out of the mechani¬ 
cal portion of the subject. 
Medicated pessaries may be said, practically, to have been originated by Pro¬ 
fessor Simpson, of Edinburgh, some twenty years or more ago ; and though, from 
their very nature and the limited class of cases in which they are used, the number 
prescribed is not very great, still the increasing acceptance amongst medical men 
of Professor Simpson’s views in respect of the advantage they offer has caused a 
very general demand for them in localities south of the Tweed. With the purely 
medical and therapeutical portion of the subject we have little to do ; and, in place 
of occupying your time with matters pertaining rather to the office of the obstetri¬ 
cian than the pharmaceutist, I may refer you for such details to a paper of Professor 
Simpson’s, read before the Obstetric Society of Edinburgh in 1848 ;* * * § to a com¬ 
munication by Dr. Tanner in the ‘ Transactions of the Obstetrical Society of 
London,’ 1863 ;f or to a second paper by Professor Simpson read before the 
Edinburgh Society, and printed in the ‘ Edinburgh Medical Journal ’ for May, 
1865.J It is sufficient here to state that the object in view is to have a means 
of applying medicinal substances to the vagina and cervix uteri, for the relief of 
various diseased conditions of those organs. It is necessary, in the preparation 
of an excipient for the various medicines used in this way, to bear in mind the 
conditions under which it is to be used. The qualities to be sought are pre¬ 
cisely those I have dwelt upon as desiderata in the case of suppositories, viz, 
firmness at ordinary temperatures combined with a very low melting-point, and 
non-liability to decomposition. Hence the wax and lard compound originally 
recommended by Professor Simpson is objectionable, and in his later paper has 
been abandoned in favour of the cacao butter. Dr. Tanner, in his paper above 
alluded to, proposes as a basis the cacao butter and olive oil, in the proportions 
of four parts to one ; and his formulse seem to be pharmaceutically unexception¬ 
able, though I must confess to a preference for either lard or, in some cases, 
almond oil, as a softening ingredient. 
Some objection has been raised on the ground of the price of the theobroma 
oil, and it is perhaps just worth while to inquire whether any less expensive 
material may be found which will fulfil the same conditions. In my search for 
such a substance, cocoa-nut stearine§ was named to me as worth trying, and, 
after a number of experiments, I am inclined to believe it may be made to work 
well. Acting partly under the impression that the keeping properties of theo¬ 
broma oil were due to its aromatic constituent, and partly on the strength of 
the results obtained by Mr. T. B. Groves in the prevention of rancidity in fats 
mixed with metallic oxides, by the use of aromatic essential oils, I have in my 
experiments always used a small percentage of oil of pimento. 
A mixture composed of 
Cocoa-nut stearine . . . 9 oz. 
Lard.1 oz. 
Oil of pimento .... 20 minims, 
* Printed in tlie Edinburgh Monthly Medical Journal, June, 1848, p. 886. Reprinted in 
Professor Simpson’s Obstetric Works, vol. i. p. 98. 
f Reprinted in Pharmaceutical Journal and Transactions, 2nd series, vol. iv. no. 12, p. 514. 
t Reprinted as a circular by Messrs. Duncan, Flockhart, and Co. 
§ Cocoa-nut stearine is to be obtained from Price’s Patent Candle Company, at about one 
shilling per pound. 
