AmAJu°guri8>7h8arm*}  New  Device  for  Moulding  Suppositories. 
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A  NEW  DEVICE  FOR  MOULDING  SUPPOSITORIES. 
By  Emlen  Painter,  Ph.G. 
[Read  at  a  Meeting  of  the  California  Pharmaceutical  Society,  May  29,  1878.) 
It  is  not  my  intention  to  write  an  elaborate  essay  on  the  best  mode 
of  preparing  suppositories,  but  simply  to  describe  a  little  device  for 
readily  moulding  the  material  in  a  convenient  form,  and  doing  it  quickly 
and  well.  Although  so  much  has  been  written  on  the  subject  of  sup- 
positories within  the  past  few  years,  and  various  are  the  moulds  to  be 
found  in  the  market,  no  contrivance  for  moulding  them  has  yet  been 
devised  that  seems  to  have  met  with  universal  favor,  either  from  the 
high  price  at  which  some  of  the  machines  are  held,  their  inefficiency 
or  a  lack  of  dexterity  on  the  part  of  the  operator. 
Many  pharmacists  do  not  meet  with  satisfactory  results  in  the  pro- 
cess of  melting  the  cacao  butter  and  casting  the  material  in  moulds — 
their  own  fault,  no  doubt,  for  not  knowing  better  how  to  do  it.  At 
best,  however,  it  is  rather  a  tedious  and  troublesome  process,  and  in 
the  hands  of  unskilled  assistants,  the  numerous  difficulties  that  are 
continually  met  with  offer  a  serious  objection  :  as  for  instance,  sticking 
to  the  moulds  ;  varying  in  size,  or  making  ten  or  eleven  where  there 
ought  to  be  twelve  ;  and  perhaps  the  last  one  cast  has  one-quarter  of 
the  medicament  that  ought  to  be  in  the  dozen  ;  and  also  the  long  time 
required  in  preparing  them,  besides  other  minor  objections. 
The  plan  of  shaping  the  suppositories  with  the 
fingers  (the  one  most  generally  adopted,  perhaps) 
has  its  objections  as  well,  but  in  my  opinion  not 
so  important  nor  numerous  as  the  objections  to 
the  melting  process.  The  principal  ones  are  their 
varying  in  shape,  their  unfinished  appearance  and 
the  long  time  required,  if  pains  are  taken,  to 
shape  them  very  nicely.  The  lacking  in  uniform- 
ity is  sometimes  particularly  noted  by  the  patient,  if 
the  suppositories  chance  to  be  prepared  a  second 
time  by  a  different  person  from  the  one  who  ori- 
ginally put  up  the  prescription. 
Now  all  the  objections  above  noted,  including 
that  of  an  expensive  machine,  seem  to  be  obviated 
by  this  device.  It  is  made  on  the  principle  of 
Remington's  pill  machine  for  making  compressed 
