ON  SUPPOSITORIES  AND  MEDICATED  PESSARIES. 
53 
uncertainty  which  has  hitherto  attended  it.  I  therefore  beg  to 
offer  to  my  pharmaceutical  brethren  a  few  remarks  upon  the 
methods  of  manipulation  which,  after  sundry  trials,  I  have  found 
most  convenient. 
The  difficulties  to  be  overcome  may  be  thus  enumerated : 
The  composition  must  be  firm,  but  readily  fusible,  not  liable  to 
split,  and  not  apt  to  adhere  to  the  mould. 
The  active  ingredients  must  be  so  diffused  that  there  shall  be 
an  equal  quantity  in  each  suppository,  whether  six  or  sixty  have 
to  be  dispensed  at  one  operation,  and  that  each  suppository  shall 
be  uniform  throughout  its  substance.  ' 
The  size  and  shape  must  be  uniform  throughout  any  series,  but 
capable  of  variation  at  the  will  of  the  prescriber. 
And  these  requirements  must  be  met  with  as  little  expenditure 
of  time  as  possible,  both  on  commercial  grounds  and  for  the  con- 
venience of  the  patient. 
The  first  requirements,  those  depending  upon  composition,  are 
already  removed  from  the  province  of  the  pharmaceutist,  the 
Pharmacopoeia  having  supplied  us  with  a  formula  which  leaves 
no  difficulty  with  regard  to  the  properties  of  the  basis  except  its 
disposition  to  adhere  to  the  mould.  This  adhesiveness  is  one 
great  source  of  annoyance,  and  various  methods  have  been 
suggested  for  overcoming  it. 
The  suppositories,  when  cast  in  the  usual  metal  moulds,  fre- 
quently adhere  so  closely  as  to  be  torn  in  two  when  the  mould  is 
opened,  and  this  is  more  especially  the  case  if  ample  time  cannot 
be  allowed  for  them  to  become  thoroughly  cold  and  hard. 
If  moist  clay  be  adopted  as  a  matrix,  there  is  little  fear  of  the 
suppositories  being  broken  in  the  extraction,  unless  they  are 
moved  before  quite  hard.  They  may  be  dug  out  with  a  stiff 
knife,  but  are  not  in  condition  for  use  without  washing;  and  all 
this  is  wasteful  of  the  most  costly  element  in  their  production — 
time. 
After  various  expedients  had  been  tried,  such  as  rubbing  th? 
metal  mould  with  oil  or  glycerin,  in  the  hope  of  preventing  ad- 
hesion, I  adopted,  with  the  greatest  satisfaction,  little  cones  of 
tinfoil,  setting  them  in  the  gun -metal  mould  ;  all  chance  of  ad- 
hesion is  thus  prevented,  and  the  foil  is  readily  removed  when 
