The present invention seeks to provide an improved needle design and needle assembly which is particularly adapted for live vaccines and the like. Another aspect of the invention features methods of lubricating a joint in a mammal by contacting the joint with a pharmaceutical composition of the invention. A substantially flat sheet of sintered porous metal having porous openings is formed into a cylindrical configuration to construct a cylindrical containment wall with porous openings each increasing in pore size from the interior of the cylindrical wall toward the exterior of the cylindrical wall. The coolant chamber entrance and exit communicate with corresponding coolant inlet and outlet passageways, respectively, cooperatively defined by a pair of insulators which retain the heat sink in a predetermined orientation within an evacuated envelope of an x-ray device. 5% to about 5% by weight of a lead-free heat-stabilizing system.