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ANTONIO GONZÁLEZ BUENO Y RAÚL RODRÍGUEZ NOZAL AN. R. ACAD. NAC. FARM.

really interesting variant since the invention of the new format. The
basis of his technique relied on obtaining medicinal capsules by means
of a simple mechanism, capable of elaborating cylindrical hollow bod-
ies of gelatine by sliding them into a mould and in whose interior the
medicinal substance was kept. These cylinders of gelatine could be
submitted to capsular division thanks to the use of a cutting instru-
ment specially designed for this operation. The perfection of the tech-
nique of capsular elaboration meant a truly gigantic step forward with
the validation of a new French patent presented by Lavalle and
Thévenot in 1846. The basis of this new method, clearly influenced
by the procedure carried out two years before by the Italian Pegna,
was the fabrication of capsules by interposition of the medical sub-
stance between two plates of solidified gelatine, fused by pressure of
metal plates with holes (capsular moulds).

Parallel to the proposal of Thévenot was another developed and
defended by yet another Frenchman, Jules César Lehuby; a new in-
vention self-denominated as Mes enveloppes médicamenteuses, which
would later be patented in France in October of 1846. Lehuby would
describe these ‘envelopes’ as similar to the cocoons of silk worms,
formed by two adjustable compartments one within the other until
making a form like a cylindrical box capable of containing the re-
quired medical substance in its interior. The revolutionary invention
of Lehuby, at that time known by the name of hard gelatine capsules,
was modified by its author three consecutive times (1847-1850) with
the aim of improvement. Despite the fact that Lehuby was really the
inventor of the double compartmental gelatine capsules, other au-
thors, principally from the Anglo-Saxon area, would concede the priv-
ilege of invention to the British James Murdoch, responsible for a
patent for “an improved capsule or small care for protecting matters
enclosed therein from the action of air, and an improved material to
be used in their manufacture” (May 1848). Murdoch himself recog-
nised, in the preamble to the text of his patent, that his contribution
was not totally original: “it was communicated to me from abroad”
(24). One of the possible reasons to explain this error of attribution,
maintained by the greater part of the texts on the subject of gelatine
capsules written at the end of the 19th century, and even today (27),
was the scant repercussion that this type of preparation had during
nearly 30 years following the publication of the first patents. The cap-

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