4 S 0 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. [December 10 , 1870 , 
the best scammony, etc. etc.; ancl profess to charge a respect¬ 
able price. I think therefore my brethren will see I do not 
come under the doctor’s designation in keeping the “ cheap 
and nasty” shop off Oxford Street, near Grosvenor Square. 
Trro. Ramsden. 
29, North Andleg Street, Grosvenor Square, TF., 
December 6th. 
New Material for Suppositories and Pessaries. 
Sir,—In your last number you give a formula for supposi¬ 
tories from the Canadian Pharmaceutical Journal, contain¬ 
ing glue and golden syrup. These new materials may, I think, 
be advantageously represented in British pharmacies by pure 
gelatine and glycerine. Some time since I was handed the 
following prescription:—• 
R. Pessar. Atropinrs gr. ^ in sing, 
c. Gelatin, mittc viij. 
One to be used ever} 1 - night. TV". 0. P. 
This is an “ obscure ” prescription. It might have been 
intended for an “ especial ” druggist, but as AY. O. P. was not 
“ formerly surgeon, royal navy,” and the “ Latinity” was easily 
to be comprehended, I ventured to dispense it. I took of 
Nelson’s gelatine 1 drachm; glycerine, 1 drachm; water, 
1 oz. ; dissolved by heat; added the atropine, and poured into 
moulds. The evaporation will leave each pessary weighing 
about 1 drachm, an elegant and faithful representative of the 
prescriber’s idea, stiff enough to bo handled, and readily melt¬ 
ing at a slight increase of temperature. 
The moulds I use have some points of superiority, especially 
when gelatine forms the body of the pessary. They are made 
in this wise: cut and file a cork to the required size of the 
cone; round this, twist a piece of waxed paper; cut off the 
unequal edges, and stand the cup thus formed with its twisted 
point downwards in a slightly-compressed heap of linseed 
meal or chalk AYhen filling these moulds, which cost little 
and are worth much, you can see what you are about, can 
use all your material, can make the pessaries all of one size, 
they come out clean, and, when cocoa butter is used, can be 
dropped into water to hasten the cooling. 
AYm. Matthews. 
Wigmore Street, December 6th, 1870. 
P.S.—I hope you won’t send the original of the facsimile 
prescription to Mr. Ince, to be a puzzle to future candidates. 
If you do, ask him to put it in, as Mr. Watson Bradshaw 
would say, jpar parenthese (vide page 458, in a lucid para¬ 
graph, twenty.one lines long with only one full-stop), to show 
what a prescription ought not to be. 
Physicians’ Prescriptions. 
Sir,—Having observed more than one of your correspon¬ 
dents’ remarks on physicians’ prescriptions, I forward the 
appended, hoping you may find it convenient to give it a 
place in your next. I dispensed it some years ago, and had I 
not actually seen the ‘“'author ” of it, I would not have taken 
it in hand, it seems so very “ general .” I still possess the 
“ original.” 
R. Podophyllin. gr. -J- 
Ext. Coloc. Co. gr. ij 
Ext. Taraxac. gr. j 
Ext. Anthem, gr. j 
Ext. Hyoscy. gr. j 
M. fiat pil. tal. xviij. Capiat j omni nocte. 
R. Ext. Elaterii gr. g- 
Strychnin. gr. f- 
Iodid. Potass. 5j 
Ferri Tart. 5ij 
Sol. Mur. Morph. 5’j 
Acet. Potass. 5iv 
Tinct. Cal umbos 5 v j 
A r in. Ipecac. 5hj 
Glycerin® 5iv 
Inf. Calumbce ad 5yj. 
M. fiat mist., cujus capiat coch. magn. j bis vel ter in die. 
R. Hydrarg. Biniodid. 5ss 
t T ng. Cetacei ad 3‘ij. 
M. fiat ung. utend. ut dictum nocte et mane. 
A burgh town on the west coast of Scotland can even now 
boast of the services of the practitioner who tcrote this (I 
can’t say prescribed it). 
* Alex. Fraser, Chemist and Druggist. 
Largs, N.P. Dec. 3rd, 1870. 
A! HOLESALE DRUGGISTS* ASSISTANTS’ SOCIETY. 
Sir,—Having seen in page 388 of your Journal a request 
made by J. Hart for some information regarding aAAffiolesale 
Druggists’ Assistants’ Society supposed to be at present in 
course of formation, I have carefully watched for a reply 
from some of your readers. I should'be most happy to join, 
in such a Society did one exist, but I fear from the fact of no- 
one tendering the required information that your correspon¬ 
dent, J. Hart, must have been misinformed, or that the move¬ 
ment, like one made some years since for a similar purpose 
by Mr. O. D. Owen, has fallen to the ground for want of suf¬ 
ficient energy on the part of its promoters. If such a Soeietv 
is actually being formed, why is so little known regarding it ?■ 
Dishopsgate Street, City, P. S. Cosgrove. 
26th November , 1870. 
A Point of Ernies. 
Sir,—In reference to the prescription dispensed by “ Mag¬ 
nesia,” you remark that a chemist would not be justified in 
adding “ ac. sulph. dil.” to dissolve the quinine, so as to make 
‘“a mixture.” Now, I beg respectfully to differ from you on 
this point. I think any qualified chemist has a perfect right 
to use his discretion in properly compounding any medical 
man’s prescription; and, in the case in point, the doctor had 
evidently forgotten to write “ ac. sulph. dil.,” or he did not 
understand chemistry. I have frequently compounded a. 
similar prescription from doctors in this town, and they al¬ 
ways invariably write “ac. sulph. dil.” Medical men require 
looking after as well as “chemists.” 
Chemicus of Twenty Years’ Standing. 
A AYarning. 
Sir,—I have been taken in! I write in order to warn my 
brethren in London and suburbs against the same paltry ini- 
position. A man came into my shop, and, presenting a bill 
of “De Conder’s Pills,” inquired if I kept them in stock, and 
being told that I did not, but could procure them, requested 
me to do so, and stated that he would call for them the next 
evening. I obtained the pills, but need hardly add that the 
man has not made his appearance again. I should not have- 
troubled you in this small matter, but I found that three 
druggists in this neighbourhood had received similar visits 
from the same man, and I have no doubt many others as well. 
Publishing this may deter the gentleman from imposing on 
others in the same way, and may lead them to request him to 
pay before they obtain them. I would advise that he should 
be charged at least Is. 2d., as they cost that. 
B 010 , D., December 7th, 1870. S. D. 
The Phaeton Pen. —AYe have received from Messrs. Alac- 
niven and Cameron a box of the above pens. 
P£. Pagner and TF. Wright (Boston).—The letters and 
stamps have been handed to the Secretary. 
“A Student ” and TF. II. (Canterbury) are referred to the 
rule requiring the name and address of correspondents. 
Colchicum. —They may be obtained in London of Jack- 
son and Townson, Griffin, or Howe; at Norwich, of Sutton; 
at Newcastle, of Brady, or Mawson and Swan; at Manches¬ 
ter, of Mottershead. 
Communications, Letters, etc., have been received from 
Mr. F. Adams (Stoke-on-Trent), Mr. AY. M. Macnaughten 
(Dublin), Mr. M. C. Cooke, Mr. T. AY. Langricige (Midhurst),. 
Mr. H. P. Hoarder (Plymouth), Air. S. Newbury (Dorking),. 
Air. A. F. Girdler (Shirley), Air. Twemlow (Edgware Road), 
Air. J. Statliers, Air. AY. T. Oldham (AVisbech), Air. J. E. How¬ 
ard, Air. E. C. C. Stanford (Glasgow), Air. AY. Row (Exeter), 
Air. AY. AAL Stoddart, Air. J. Beedzler, F. R. B. (Aliddles- 
burgh) F. J. B., G. H. B., “ Soda-AYatcr,” T. T. (Islington), 
Air. Hustwick (Liverpool). 
The following journals have been received:—The ‘British 
Medical Journal,’ Dec. 3; the ‘Aledical Times and Gazette,’ 
Dec. 3 ; the ‘ Lancet,’ Dec. 3 ; the ‘ Aledical Press and Circu¬ 
lar,’ Dec. 7 ; ‘ Nature,’ Dec. 1 ; the ‘ Chemical News,’ Dec. 2 ; 
‘ Journal of the Society of Arts,’ Dec. 1; ‘ Gardeners’ Chro¬ 
nicle,’ Dec. 3; the ‘ Grocer,’ Dec. 3; the ‘ English Alechanic,’ 
Dec. 2; the ‘ Produce Alarkets Review,’ Dec. 3 ; the ‘ Cana¬ 
dian Journal of Pharmacy’ for November; the ‘Journal of 
Alateria Aledica’ for November; Ilardwicke’s ‘Science Gos¬ 
sip’ for December; the ‘Food Journal’ for December; 
‘Transactions of the Odontological Society’ for November; 
the ‘Educational Times’ lor December. 
