THOXOS
Thoxos is a “specialty” of John Wyeth and Brother. From an advertising circular we learn that it “offers to the physician a rational treatment for Rheumatism, both the Subacute and Chronic forms, Lithemia, Rheumatic Arthritis, Gout, Sciatica and the various manifestations of uric diathesis,” and that “it is a palatable solution of Strontium and Lithium soluble salts, thirty-two grains, combined with twenty-four minims Wine of Colchicum Seed and a vegetable alterative, in each fluidounce, flavored with aromatics.” This “formula” does not indicate the acid with which the metals strontium and lithium are combined, or what the “vegetable alterative” is; it is essentially a secret preparation. To learn what the missing and presumably active ingredients are an analysis was made by our chemists.
LABORATORY REPORT
One original bottle of Thoxos, John Wyeth and Brother, Philadelphia, was purchased and submitted to analysis. The bottle contained a brown liquid having an aromatic odor and a sweet taste. The specific gravity of the liquid was 1.118 at 15 C. (60 F.) The solution was acid to litmus. Qualitatively the following constituents were detected: strontium, potassium, sodium, lithium, ammonium, salicylate, iodid, glycerin, alkaloid, alcohol and water. By the smell and taste, oil of wintergreen, or methyl salicylate, and oil of sassafras were recognized. Positive tests for a saponin-like body indicated the probable presence of sarsaparilla.
Quantitatively the following results were obtained:
| Ammonia (NH3) | 0.006 | per cent. |
| Lithium (Li) | 0.13 | per cent. |
| Sodium (Na) | 0.03 | per cent. |
| Strontium (Sr.) | 1.03 | per cent. |
| Iodid (I) | 0.46 | per cent. |
| Salicylate (C6H4.OH.COO) | 4.19 | per cent. |
| Glycerin | 19.2 | per cent. |
From the analytic results it would appear that the preparation contains approximately potassium iodid, 0.67 gm. per hundred c.c., or 3 grains per fluidounce; lithium salicylate [Li(C7H5O3)], 0.9 gm. per hundred c.c., or 4 grains per fluidounce; strontium salicylate [Sr(C7H5O3)2-2H2O], 5.75 gm. per hundred c.c., or 26 grains per fluidounce, and some salicylic acid combined with sodium and also in the free state. The total salicylate found is equal to 5.47 gm. of sodium salicylate per hundred c.c., or 25 grains per fluidounce.
As strontium salicylate and lithium salicylate are now generally considered to differ but slightly, if at all, in their action from that of sodium salicylate, each dose of Thoxos, 1 teaspoonful or 4 c.c., may be considered the equivalent of 0.2 gm. or 3 grains of sodium salicylate with a fractional dose of colchicum. Hence this nostrum—for this is the correct definition—is a mixture of no more value than a prescription of sodium salicylate with a fractional dose of potassium iodid and colchicum, one that any doctor could write and any druggist dispense. Yet it is doubtless prescribed by physicians under the belief that it possesses some occult power not to be found in ordinary drugs and their combinations. To prescribe Thoxos is to prescribe a name, and the patient who takes it would be as well off if he went to the nearest drug store and purchased a bottle of any of the thousand and one rheumatism cures with which the country is flooded.—(From The Journal A. M. A., March 21, 1914.)