SAL-CODEIA—BELL

According to the advertisements “Salacetin”

“... is a combination with heat of salicylic and glacial acetic acids with phenylamine, the irritating, depressing and blood-corpuscle destroying elements removed.”

According to the Committee on Chemistry of the Council on Pharmacy and Chemistry of the American Medical Association, whose report was published in The Journal of the American Medical Association June 3, 1905, p. 1791, “Salacetin” is a mixture of acetanilid, salicylate of sodium and bicarbonate of sodium. Sal-Codeia (Salacetin-Codein) therefore would be the same as above with codein added. Of course, acetanilid and codein will relieve pain (it could not do otherwise) and consequently make a very good combination in certain conditions, if not used too often and if used with care. Although the continued use of codein is not likely to produce a drug habit, it, as well as acetanilid, does so sometimes, and it must be remembered that codein is a motor paralysant, and is not the best combination to be used with acetanilid. For those who wish to give a combination of acetanilid, salicylate of sodium and codein, the following prescription is suggested:

℞ Acetanilid

Ʒ i  4| 

 Sodii bicarbonatis

Ʒ ss  2| 

 Sodii salicylatis

Ʒ ss  2| 

 Codein sulph.

gr. vi  0|4
M. et div. chart No. xxiv.

This will make five-grain powders which may be put in papers, capsules, cachets or tablets. Each will contain 21⁄2 grains (0.15 gm.) of acetanilid and 11⁄4 grains (0.075 gm.) each of sodium salicylate and sodium bicarbonate, with 1⁄4 grain (0.015 gm.) of codein.

The doses of acetanilid and of codein approximate the average adult doses, but the sodium salicylate, to have any appreciable effect, must be increased, for 11⁄4 grains of salicylate of sodium in a dose is insignificantly small. Sodium salicylate with acetanilid makes a fairly good combination in certain rheumatic troubles, but it is not indicated by any means as a cure-all, as one would judge from the literature sent out by the Sal-Codeia-Bell people.​—(From The Journal A. M. A., Nov. 4, 1905.)