June 3, 1871.] 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
9G9 
form, and other subjects connected with economic ento¬ 
mology. The process of making these is as follows:— 
The object to be modelled should first be coated 
thickly and strongly with wax ; this may be done by 
placing it on a smooth board which has been slightly 
damped to prevent adhesion, and then brushing the 
melted wax rapidly over it with a camel's-hair pencil. 
The wax should at first be almost boiling hot, so that it 
may flow from the brush like water, and leave no marks 
where the successive applications join each other, and 
when a thin coating of wax has been secured over the 
entire surface of the object (or such parts as it is desired 
to model), the mould should bo gradually thickened by 
the application of successive brushfuls of the rapidly 
cooling wax till it is of the required strength. 
If the object to be modelled is a leaf, it is best to 
remove it from the mould before the wax is perfectly 
cool. In this state it can be gently lifted and drawn 
from the mould without injuring the most delicate folds. 
If it is a fruit or root, the wax should be left untouched 
till it is thoroughly cold and hard, and the object may 
then be cut away carefully with a knife or curved 
chisel, the central part being first gradually removed 
till a mere film remain of the rind or bark of the object 
immediately touching the wax mould. This may be 
broken away or withdrawn by a pair of forceps, and 
removed through the opening which has been left where 
the object was placed on the modelling-board. 
The cavity is then to be filled with plaster of Paris,^ 
mixed smoothly with water to about the consistency of 
cream, and laid into the mould in successive brushfuls 
with the kind of paint-brush known as a hog-tool. Much 
of the beauty of the model depends on the care exercised 
in this part of the work. If the plaster is sufficiently 
liquid, and worked well into all parts of the mould with 
the brush, all is well; but if the plaster is too thick, or 
allowed to run at once in a mass into the mould, air- 
bubbles and other defects are most likely to appear, and 
the model to be totally useless. 
It is necessary to procure the best plaster of Paris, 
such as may be procured from the London dealers, as 
what is procured in country towns seldom sets pro¬ 
perly, and consequently causes much disappointment. 
When the plaster has set firmly, the wax should be re¬ 
moved by pouring scalding water over it; and the model, 
after having been properly dried, either by warmth or 
by setting it aside on blotting-paper for some days, 
should be carefully examined, and all superfluous plaster 
and imperfections removed, and it will then be ready 
for colouring. 
In colouring, the great object is to give the natural 
tints without injuring the perfect representation of tex¬ 
ture of surface already obtained; unless the colouring 
materials are used with great care, the fine markings 
which, through their truth of representation, give the 
life-like appearance to the model, will be lost sight of, 
and its value much deteriorated. 
To meet this point, we should be careful to avoid the 
application of paint in layers, which are liable to leave 
the . projecting parts bare and the fine. depressions 
clogged, and to render evident the markings of the 
brush and the junctions of the various tints of paint. 
If the model is prepared by being soaked on the surface 
with drying oil, and, after being slightly warmed, the 
paint (which should be the ordinary good oil-paint used 
by artists) is. so to say, floated with the brush over the 
surface, allowing the tints to blend and run into each 
other in some places, the superfluous matter being care¬ 
fully removed from the hollows with a fine brush, this 
method will usually, with care and patience, succeed, so 
that the object may be satisfactorily tinted in a very 
short time, and will only require the addition of a few 
characteristic touches (or possibly corrective washes of 
transparent tint), applied where requisite, after the first 
coat has dried. 
The minutiae of work, such as kinds of varnish and 
different methods of manipulation, would be too long in 
detail to enter on here, but it may be added that the 
natural appearance of the model may often be much 
enhanced by the addition of such parts of the original as 
are durable. For example, the dry scales of the pseudo - 
bulbs of orchids, or the outer coats of some bulbs, may 
be carefully removed from the object to be modelled be¬ 
fore the mould is taken, and, being replaced on the 
model in their proper position after it has been tinted, 
will give a truthfulness and beauty to the work which 
could be obtained in no other manner .—Gardeners 
Chronicle. 
THE USE OE WAX, TALLOW, ETC. IN 
SUPPOSITORIES. * 
BY CHARLES L. EBERLE. 
Pure cacao-butter may be asserted to be but rarely if 
ever met with in the drug market. The samples for sale 
vary sensibly in colour and consistency, and no positive 
rule for judging of a pure article by cursory examination 
can be offered. A candid admission by several prominent 
manufacturers of the article, reveals the fact of its fre¬ 
quent adulteration, and since the extended demand and 
sale of this production for cosmetic and suppository ap¬ 
plication, a greater variety of mixtures known as butter 
of cacao is to be found than formerly. 
The pharmacist, however, but seldom applies it to uses 
other than in the preparation of suppositories, the suc¬ 
cessful use of which depends upon a base, whose point of 
fusion will correspond to animal heat, which can bo 
handled readily when in form, and which, upon exposure 
to the natural heat of the body, will promptly liquefy 
not melt slowly, thus depositing quickly the medicating 
ingredient upon the surface to which it has been ex¬ 
hibited. 
The butter of cacao most satisfactory for pharma¬ 
ceutical use is of a dirty white, inclined to yellow in ap¬ 
pearance, firm under pressure, yet disposed to yield its 
surface when held in the hand by the warmth thus im¬ 
parted, fusing readily at or about 98°, which sets rapidly 
after fusion when exposed to cold, and which, after such 
exposure, maintains its original character at ordinary 
temperatures. 
Such cacao-butter may be had, and under proper ma¬ 
nipulation it needs no addition of a hardening ingic- 
dient to adapt it to suppository use. 
Cacao-butter at 98° F. liquefies. This is more, appa¬ 
rent in the rectum or vagina than by merely holding in 
the hand. The mixtures, I mean the mixtures made by 
the pharmacist with the cacao-butter of the market, var^ 
in their behaviour in proportion to the quantity and 
character of the hardening ingredient used in connection 
with it. ,, , 
A considerable proportion of cetaceum may be aclaea 
without materially affecting the value of a suppository; 
at least ten per cent., if combined with the butter, will 
produce a suppository which will not be likely to,be com¬ 
plained of by the medical profession, but the slowness 
with which this alloy, so to speak, fuses, makes this or 
the addition of any hardening substance a serious.objec¬ 
tion. Wo need promptness of action in the application 
of medicines by suppository, which can be best secured 
by rapid liquefaction of the excipient, and no mixture or 
single substance combines the essential requisites so 
completely as a good sample of so-called cacao-butter. 
The addition of wax to cacao-butter is to bo repre¬ 
hended. While, under restriction, a mixture may be 
formed which will harden more quickly and bear moie 
handling than the butter alone, the reflecting pharmacist 
will bear in mind the slowness ol its fusion at annn 
* Paper read at the meeting of the American. Pharmaceu 
\jical Association. 
