All.  JocR  Pharm.  I 
April  1,  1871.  J 
Wax^  TuUovj,  etc.^  iri  Suppositories, 
171 
feet,  and  shows  no  disposition  to  separate  on  fusion,  if  the  heat  be 
maintained  at  that  point. 
The  difficulties  in  a  proper  understanding  of  the  preparation  of 
suppositories  without  the  addition  of  a  hardening  ingredient  in  connec- 
tion witli  cacao-butter  have  been  solely  those  of  manipulation. 
Experience  is  leading  many  to  prepare  the  excipient  with  a  smaller 
proportion  of  wax,  spermaceti,  &c.,  than  they  at  first  thought  neces- 
sary, until  the  quantity  used  by  some  is  so  trifling  as  to  practically 
amount  to  little  or  no  use. 
Of  the  various  raixtui-es,  those  of  one-eighth  spermaceti  or  one- 
fourteenth  or  less  of  wax  are  least  objectionable.  Tallow  suet  or 
paraffine  produced  no  results  not  secured  by  the  first-mentioned, 
while  there  were  some  objections  to  be  attached  to  their  use  not  present 
in  the  others. 
•Now  while  some  have  discovered  points  of  manipulation  to  make 
these  suppositories  of  cacao-butter  alone,  rapidly  and  well  (and  how 
much  often  hangs  upon  a  very  slight  thread  in  this  respect),  far 
exceeding  in  value  those  I  am  about  to  offer  to  you,  I  will  simply 
state  the  mode  which  gives  me  the  most  satisfactory  result. 
The  mould  is  of  brass  ;  a  clamp  hinged  at  one  extremity  and  handled 
at  the  other,  held  firmly  in  place  by  a  ring  slipped  over  said  handles  ; 
the  cones  are  turned  from  the  interior  face  of  the  clamps,  as  in  an 
ordinary  bullet-mould.  It  should  mould  at  least  one  dozen,  and  be 
improved  by  the  addition  of  a  loose  clamp,  to  be  attached  firmly  in 
the  centre  and  at  the  bottom  of  so  long  a  tool,  to  prevent  the  loss  of 
the  fused  mass  before  congealing,  by  running  from  between  the 
plates. 
This  mould  should,  so  far  as  possible,  be  thoroughly  chilled  and 
ready  for  use.  To  place  the  fused  butter  in  the  mould  while  it  is  warm? 
and  cool  both  by  the  same  operation,  almost  invariably  results  in  the 
contraction  of  the  metal  upon  the  cool  cone  to  a  degree  that  upon  the 
attempted  separation  of  the  matrix  every  cone  will  be  split  in  two. 
When  the  mould  i?  thoroughly  cooled,  the  butter  sets  rapidly,  and  in 
fifteen  or  twenty  minutes  the  suppositories  will  drop  from  the  matrices 
by  their  own  gravity. 
The  deductions  I  draw  from  a  close  observance  of  this  subject  for 
the  past  two  years  are,  that  the  addition  of  a  substance  such  as  wax, 
spermaceti,  &c.,  to  cacao-butter  produces  a  mixture  requiring  a  higher 
point  of  heat  for  its  fusion,  and  in  proportion  to  the  amount  of  such 
