Nutritive Suppositories

These are 6o-grain suppositories made with cocoa-butter or gelatin basis and dry or paste peptone. Six drachms of Mosquera beef meal and 1 ounce of cocoa-butter make a good mass either by the cold or by the hot method.

Oils (Essential)

Mixtures of cocoa-butter and essential oils are lower in melting-point than the cocoa-butter itself, hence it is necessary, in many cases, to use as much white wax as the essential oil prescribed. This, however, is not always admissible, as the following examples show:

I.

Pulv iodoli..............................

gr.j.

01. eucalypti...........................

mij.

Ol. theobromatis.....................

q.s.

Fiat cereolus. Mitte vj.

II.

Plumbi iodidi. ......................

gr. ij.

Tannin. ...

gr. ij.

Iodoformi.............................

gr.j.

Ol. eucalypti ..................

mv.

01. theobrom. ...................

q.s.

Fiat suppositorium. Mitte xij.

In the first case 2 grains of white wax is added to each bougie. In the second, although more essential oil is present, the tannin and other dry ingredients elevate the melting-point (compare page 191), and a satisfactory mass is obtained by using 13 grains of cocoa-butter alone for each suppository. Reduce the bulk of the tannin by trituration in a mortar, transfer to the slab, and mix with the other powders and the eucalyptus oil, using a bone spatula; then add some of the melted cocoa-butter, transfer to the basin, mix well, and pour into the mould.

Salts In Suppositories

The settling of the active ingredient of some suppositories at the apex has already been referred to. We have seen bromide-of-potassium suppositories sent out with all the bromide at the point, forming a hard and gritty mass, which must have been disagreeable to the patient. This is inexcusable, and need never occur if care be taken to have the substance first thoroughly impalpable, and then incorporated with a part of the cocoa-butter previous to adding to the melted portion at a temperature a little over the melting-point. There is, moreover, another evil attending the overheating of the mixture, where powders of a ponderous nature, such as bromide and iodide of potassium, or acetate and iodide of lead, are ordered - namely, the impossibility of an equal division of the substance. The powder falls to the bottom of the dish, owing to the fluidity of the cocoa-butter, and no amount of stirring or dexterity of manipulation will ensure its equal distribution. The cold method is especially suitable in such cases. It is in this class of suppositories that the gelatin basis has the advantage - for instance, in the case of iodine.

Tannin. - ote the paragraphs on Galls and Iodoform.