Specification of Edmund Adolphus Kirby : dispensing medicines.

  • Kirby, Edmund Adolphus.
Date:
1868
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Specification of Edmund Adolphus Kirby : dispensing medicines. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    I Kirby's Improved System of Dispensing Medicines, practitioners and others a ready means of dispensing or compounding medicines without the usual delay of weighing or measuring the various ingredients; it will also enable medical men to carry with them in a convenient form the means of compounding and administering at once to the patient the medica- 5 ment or remedial agent required, and thus obviate the delay and danger frequently caused by the ordinary process of writing a prescription and sending it to a druggist or apothecary to be dispensed or compounded; the drugs will also be effectually preserved from the action of the atmosphere and from evaporation or deliquescence, and will keej) unchanged for any length of 10 time. To effect these objects I propose, instead of keeping the drugs (whether fluid or solid) in bottles or other receptacles containing indefinite quantities, as now invariably practised, to enclose the drugs separately (either in a fluid or finely powdered state) in small air-tight envelopes or cases of gelatine or 15 other suitable material, each containing a certain definite or ascertained quantity or dose of the pure drug; the said envelopes or cases being enclosed in glass tubes, bottles, or other receptacles, duly labelled with the name of the drug and the number of grains, minims, or other exact quantity contained in each envelope or case. In some cases where the drug is in the form of a 20 powder I mix it into a paste with syrup, gum, water, or other simple substance to cause it to conglomerate and roll it into globules, granules, or judules (each containing a definite quantity), and I then coat these globules, granules, or pilules by immersion in gelatine or other similar substance; I also com¬ bine several drugs or chemicals in one globule or case to produce certain 25 effects; thus, calomel and jalap fur a purge; ipecacuanha, squills, and opium as an expectorant and sedative, and in like manner I combine drugs to produce other therapeutical effects. I employ the gelatine globules or cases simply as envelopes to carry the various drugs in definite quantities and in a convenient form, either for dissolving in water, for combining their contents ,30 with those of others, or for administering as pills ; these powder pills (as they may be called) having the advantage of being more soluble, and therefore more active and certain in their operation than the ordinary pills. In carrying out this system in conjunction with my improved portable miniature dispensary, hereiii-after described, I arrange and classify the various 35 remedial preparations in different groups according to their relative therapeu¬ tical effects. In compounding, combining, or dispensing medicines with drugs prepared in this manner scales, weights, and measures are not required. All that IS necessary is to take one, two, or more of the envelopes or pilules of the different drugs as may be required, mix them together, and if the medica-