Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  1 
Mar.,  1875.  / 
On  Suppositories. 
99 
use  of  moulds.  They  lack  the  smooth,  glossy  surface,  the  elegant 
shape,  the  perfect  distribution  of  medicament,  which  characterize  well- 
made  moulded  suppositories. 
Another  very  important  feature  they  lack,  is  the  firmness,  the  solid- 
ity which  is  always  apparent  with  suppositories  when  made  by  melting 
the  cacao  butter,  and  allowing  it  to  solidify  in  the  moulds. 
Moulded  suppositories,  when  properly  prepared,  never  deposit  the 
extract  or  heavy  medicinal  ingredient  in  the  tip.  Should  this  occur,  it 
is  evidence  of  imperfect  skill  in  manipulation.  It  need  not  and  should 
not  ever  occur. 
There  is  much  difference  of  opinion  among  pharmacists,  as  to 
whether  the  cacao  butter  should  be  melted  or  not,  a  large  majority 
favoring  the  melting  process — and  it  is  certainly  the  best. 
Mr.  William  Mclntyre,  of  this  city,  differs  from  us  in  this  respect, 
and  proceeds  as  Mr.  Kennedy  in  forming  a  plastic  mass  with  the  cacao 
butter  and  the  medicament,  and,  instead  of  rolling  in  cylinders  and 
shaping  by  hand,  he  cuts  in  short  cylindrical  pieces,  and  introduces  into 
the  hinged  moulds.  With  simple  pressure,  by  this  means  he  produces, 
in  a  few  minutes,  suppositories  nearly  equallmg  in  appearance  those 
made  in  the  regular  way,  the  only  difference  being  the  absence  of  gloss 
and  the  almost  invariably  mottled  appearance,  thus  rendering  them 
much  less  elegant-looking,  though  certainly  a  very  great  improvement 
over  the  old  fogy  process  of  preparing  them  by  hand.  The  process 
requires  less  time  and  deserves  attention  ;  but  to  furnish  suppositories 
of  uniform  consistence  and  color  requires  considerable  skill  and  care. 
At  the  meeting,  in  Louisville,  of  the  American  Pharmaceutical  As- 
sociation, Mr.  Geo.  W.  Sloan,  of  Indianapolis,  took  much  interest  in 
the  discussion  on  this  subject,  and  the  mould  exhibited  here  is  an  evi- 
dence of  the  concentration  of  his  ideas  upon  its  practical  working. 
It  consists  of  a  short  brass  barrel  with  piston,  much,  in  fact,  resem- 
bling a  syringe,  with  the  exception  that  the  nozzle  of  the  syringe  is 
replaced  in  this  by  a  stout  block  of  brass,  in  which  a  conical  cavity  has 
been  turned,  resembling  the  apex  of  a  minie  rifle-bullet,  and  into  which 
the  barrel  fits  as  in  a  sockec.  The  medicinal  ingredient  is  thoroughly 
incorporated  with  the  cacao  butter,  and  thirty  grains  of  the  mass  weighed 
and  introduced  into  the  barrel  which  stands  in  the  socket ;  the  piston  is 
now  entered  and  forced  home,  the  barrel  removed  from  the  socket  and 
the  finished  suppository  drops  from  the  foot.  One  advantage  of  this 
mould  is  that  the  compression  is  so  great  that  the  finished  product  has 
the  firmness  of  an  ordinary  moulded  suppository,  yet  is  liable  to  similar 
