Am.  Jour.  Pharm  ") 
Feb.,  1875.  ; 
On  Suppositories. 
SI 
is  not  necessary.  I  never  use  anything  but  cacao  butter,  and  while  I 
have  prepared  a  large  number  of  suppositories,  I  have  experienced  no 
difficulty  whatever.  Occasionally  I  have  heard  of  complaints  by  phar- 
macists that  suppositories,  when  made  of  cacao  butter  alone,  will  lose 
their  shape,  and  have  been  returned  to  them  in  a  soft  condition  to  be 
remade.  This  might,  perhaps,  occur  when  they  are  placed  in  a  very 
warm  room  or  near  a  fire  ;  but  I  have  never  known  suppositories  made 
of  commercial  cacao  butter  to  lose  their  shape,  or  even  to  find  their 
surface  to  yield  to  the  temperature  of  the  room  where  they  were  kept,, 
and  I  have  had  sufficient  experience  in  their  manufacture  to  know  that 
they  will  keep  during  the  hottest  summer  months  in  our  climate. 
There  are  some  few  substances  that  act  on  fats  like  camphor,  which 
are  quite  troublesome  to  make  ;  but  even  for  suppositories  of  this 
character  I  use  nothing  but  oil  of  theobroma.  There  is  no  doubt  but 
much  of  the  cacao  butter,  as  found  in  the  market,  is  adulterated  with 
fats  having  low  fusing  points,  and  this  would  account  for  some  sup- 
positories losing  their  shape  and  becoming  soft.  To  obtain  absolutely 
pure  cacao  butter,  it  would  be  necessary  to  make  it  yourself.  Pur- 
chasing some  a  few  months  ago,  during  the  summer,  I  visited  several 
wholesale  houses  for  the  purpose  of  satisfying  my  curiosity  to  know 
what  was  sold  or  was  offered  for  sale  as  cacao  butter.  Of  all  the 
houses  visited,  I  found  but  two  offering  for  sale,  in  external  appear- 
ance, objectionable  cacao  butter,  which  was  very  light  in  color,  nearly 
destitute  of  the  chocolate-like  odor,  and  the  outer  appearance  resem- 
bling oil  of  theobroma  that  had  yielded  its  surface  to  the  warmth  of 
the  hand  ;  while  other  samples  examined  the  same  day  were  yellowish 
in  color,  could  be  handled  with  impunity,  and  possessed  a  strong  char- 
acteristic chocolate  odor.  A  fair  article  of  cacao  butter  may  therefore 
be  obtained. 
Of  the  many  excipients  that  have  been  introduced  since  the  time 
when  suppositories  were  first  recommended,  none  appears  to  answer 
the  requirement  so  well  as  cacao  butter ;  it  is  decidedly  the  best,  and, 
to  my  knowledge,  no  other  substance  or  composition  has  been  pro- 
posed that  can  well  be  substituted  for  it  in  its  singular  use  as  a  medi- 
cine and  vehicle. 
In  using  medicines  by  suppository,  their  action  must  be  quick,  and 
the  only  way  to  procure  this  is  to  use  an  excipient  that  will  melt  rapidly 
and  uniformly.  Physicians  object  to  the  use  of  many  of  the  hardening 
ingredients  in  suppositories — wax,  for  example — because  the  tempera- 
ture of  the  body  will  not  overcome  their  higher  melting-point  ;  they  are 
