534 JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY OF COSMETIC CHEMISTS As an example, we were asked to review all formulations containing tris- hydroxymethyl nitromethane in order to establish if it was a skin irritant, as suggested by some. The entire sear•ch and retrieval procedure took less than 15 minutes. DESIGN AND METHOD It was felt that such a search could best be accomplished by using' a Termatrex©*-based system (1). Termatrex is an optical coincidence or "peek-a-boo" system based on the drilling' of a hole into a plastic card that measures approximately 9« X 11 in. A drilled position represents a specific document number, or for our purposes, each hole drilled repre- sents a specific formulation number, and each card represents a specific ingredient. Figure 1 illustrates the basic principles of the Termatrex card. A single card is capable of recording 10,000 four-digit document numbers ranging from 0000 to 9999. The tens and units digits are ori- ented along the X axis and the thousands and hundreds digits are or- iented along the Y axis. .................... ._o77(37 * Remac International Corp., 26 No. Summit Ave., Gaithersburg, Md. * IBM Corp., Moumainside, N.J. The actual drilling of these cards can be accomplished in either of two ways. First, the Termatrex number can be read from the key- punched card and drilled directly into the proper ingredient card by us- ing the manual keyboard device. The alternative is a combined effort of the IBM Card Reader-Reproducer* and the J,onker J-400 drill* specially wired for this purpose. The Jonker J-400 does not in itself have the capa- bility of automated punched card input. A continuous card feed through the IBM 514, which is connected to the Jonker J-400 via an adapter, per- mits the drilling at a steady pace. i 67 X -- Axis (Tens • [/nits Digits) Figure 1. Termatrex card

FORMULATION-CLINICAL DATA RETRIEVAL SYSTEMS 535 Presently, the input data required by the system is the Termatrex number and specific ingxedient name. The system contains sets of 100 cards in each of 10 different colors, permitting a maximum entry of 1000 different ingredients. An ingredient is assigned a card color and a card number, i.e., methylparaben has been assigned "Yellow 35" which means it is the 35th in a deck of 100 yellow cards. Therefore, each time methyl- paraben appears in a formulation the Termatrex number assigned to methylparaben is drilled in card "Yellow 35." The next illustration (Fig. 2) demonstrates the procedure followed in retrieving information from the drilled cards. A search for formulas containing methylparaben, hexachlorophene, and menthol results in pull- ing the cards that represent each of these ingxedients. Subsequent over- lay of these cards, on a shadow box, permits light to show through at po- sition 4567, indicating the presence of the three ingredients in the formu- lation with that number. •_• •ETFIYL P^R^BEN o o Figure 2. Termatrex search •4567 Frequently, a formulation number contains more than four digits. For example, formulation 352-021 consists of six digits and unfortunately cannot be directly drilled into the Termatrex card. Therefore, a Terma- trex number-formulation number dictionary, or look-up table, is pre- pared. Two such tables are necessary: one in Termatrex number order (Table I), the other in formulation number order (Table II). In assign- ing a Termatrex number to a new formulation a look-up must be done in the formulation number order listing to search the system for a for- mulation the result is a four-digit Termatrex number. This number must be looked up in the Wetmartex number order listing to obtain the corresponding formulation number.