THE  AMERICAN 
JOURNAL  OF  PHARMACY. 
DECEMBER,  1880. 
SOLUBLE  COMPRESSED  PELLETS  for  HYPODERMIC 
MEDICATION. 
By    L.    Wolff,  M.D. 
Read  at  the  Pharmaceutical  Meeting,  Nov.  i6th. 
With  the  introduction  of  hypodermic  medication  as  a  permanent 
feature  in  therapeutics  a  demand  was  made  on  the  pharmacist  to  pre- 
pare the  proper  remedies  required  for  this  use  in  suitable  form.  The 
principal  agents  thus  required  were  the  salts  of  morphia,  and  to  have 
them  in  a  most  concentrated  form,  the  solution  of  iVIagendie,  contain- 
ing two  grains  of  the  morphia  salt  to  each  drachm  of  water,  was  usually 
dispensed. 
It  was  soon  found,  however,  that  this  was  too  bulky  to  carry  in  the 
quantities  that  might  be  required,  and  besides  that  it  would  not  keep 
well,  being  subject  to  decomposition  at  the  expense  of  the  morphia  salt, 
by  the  formation  of  confervae,  which,  like  fungi,  are  apt  to  create 
irritation  of  the  skin  and  abscesses,  often  of  a  serious  nature.  The 
addition  of  such  antiseptics  as  glycerin,  carbolic  acid  and  chloral  hydrate, 
though  obviating  this  difficulty,  increases  the  burning  pain  accompany- 
ing the  injection,  in  such  a  degree  as  to  render  these  admixtures  cer- 
tainly undesirable. 
To  avoid  all  of  these  defects  practitioners  soon  got  into  the  habit  of 
carrying  powders  containing  usually  a  quarter  grain  of  morphia  sulphate 
each,  to  which  is  often  admixed  a  minute  quantity  of  atropia,  to  cor- 
rect the  unpleasant  effects  of  the  morphia  and  to  increase  its  anaes- 
thetic properties,  which  powders  are  then  dissolved  in  a  syringeful  of 
water  when  needed. 
But  even  the  morphia  powders  prove  inconvenient,  for  various  rea- 
sons. As  usually  one  quarter  grain  cannot  be  accurately  weighed  on 
the  pharmacist's  dispensing  scales,  they  are  rarely  so  evenly  divided  as 
desirable  for  the  purpose,  besides  they  are  also  too  bulky  to  carry  in 
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