HEMO-THERAPIN

Report of the Council on Pharmacy and Chemistry

The following report on Hemo-Therapin has been adopted by the Council, and its publication authorized.

W. A. Puckner, Secretary.

According to the Hemo-Therapin Laboratories of New York City:

“Hemo-Therapin is a combination of highly refined creosols and phenols (which have been detoxicated by special processes) with salts of iron, potassium, sodium, phosphorus and calcium in minute but physiologic proportions—the solution as a whole being designed to approximately closely in various fundamental details the chemistry of the blood.”

No statement is made as to the quantities of the several ingredients, nor is any information given as to the identity of the “creosols” and “phenols,” nor the nature of the processes whereby these are “detoxicated.” It is further claimed that it is:

“... The composite character of Hemo-Therapin, the relative proportion and balance of its several ingredients, and the action of the compound as a whole, to which its potency is due.”

And it is suggested that:

“It will be apparent that the ingredients which enter into the composition of Hemo-Therapin, a remedy used intravenously exclusively, have been selected with the utmost care with the object of assuring not only maximum therapeutic potency but also absolute safety and freedom from all dangers of toxic or other unpleasant or harmful action.” [Italics in the original.]

The advertising does not explain, however, why the complex preparation should be thera­peutically efficient or why the intravenous administration of this mixture should be absolutely safe and free from toxic or harmful action. Of the origin of Hemo-Therapin it is said:

“For many years Dr. E. B. Witte, a prominent physician of Trenton, N. J. [apparently owner of the Hemo-Therapin Laboratories] has devoted himself to the study of the blood. As a result of his researches, he early determined that when the blood is close to normal standards, the body is well nourished, the natural waste products are properly eliminated, an effective resistance is offered to the invasion of pathogenic bacteria, and the various functions of the body are kept normally active. But when, for one reason or another, the blood falls away from normal standards, the nutrition of the body suffers, the elimination of waste products is impaired, the resistance to germ attack is weakened, and the various functions of the body become sadly deranged and perverted. In other words, instead of the physiologic processes of the body being normally active, as soon as the blood is depreciated, they become depressed or deranged, with a loss of the physiologic harmony or equilibrium that constitutes a state of health.

“Recognizing the relation of clinical conditions to these various phenomena, Dr. Witte reached the conclusion that the correction of many aberrant or diseased conditions depended on restoring the blood to as near to its normal state as possible. He accordingly applied himself especially to investigation of the chemistry of the blood, with the object of evolving a substance in liquid form that would so closely approximate normal blood in its essential chemical characteristics that when introduced into the circulation it would bring the blood nearer to the condition in which it exists in health.”

After the usual “many years of hard painstaking labor,” Dr. Witte elaborated a “fluid meeting the foregoing conditions” and now the Hemo-Therapin Laboratories inform us that 5 to 10 c.c. of this synthetic blood administered once in one, two or three days in “acute affection” and at longer intervals in “chronic ills”—once a week is said to be usually sufficient—will restore blood to a normality and empower it to overcome most ills. While disclaiming that “Hemo-Therapin is an infallible panacea,” the medical profession is asked to believe that:

“In erysipelas, septicemia, pyemia, the acute fevers, puerperal infection, furunculosis, carbuncles, malaria, acute rheumatism, pneumonia, typhoid fever, and in various skin diseases, such as eczema, psoriasis, herpes zoster, etc., the results have been prompt and gratifying.”

It is “no less effective” in such “chronic ailments” as:

“... diabetes, chronic Bright’s disease, goiter, pulmonary tuberculosis, chronic rheumatism, the severe anemias, arterio-sclerosis [sic], various nervous disorders, locomotor ataxia, varicose and indolent ulcers....”

Evidence of the virtues of Hemo-Therapin is submitted as a series of “case reports”—unsigned—which bear a striking likeness to the testimonials of “patent medicine” almanacs. A specimen of the “case reports” is the following:

“Blood Poisoning due to Snake Bite.—Case 9.: Mrs. ——; age, 52; was bitten by a poisonous snake—a copperhead—seventeen years ago. On the anniversary of the bite the arm would swell to more than twice its normal size and there would be pain, chills and fever. After a month of this the acute symptoms would disappear and the arm would show large scaly blotches which upon being removed would disclose a thin mucous liquid. Throughout the seventeen years pain was constant, being particularly acute in midsummer around the anniversary of the bite. This patient had consulted many physicians during the seventeen years of suffering without any relief. Large doses of narcotic remedies were necessary each day to subdue the pain. Twenty-four hours after the first injection of Hemo-Therapin all pain was dissipated. After four treatments the patient was considered well and there has been no return of any of the symptoms since the last treatment six months ago.”

Hemo-Therapin is sold in ampules: 6 for $5 and 12 for $10, and a circular sent to a physician contained this typewritten note:

“Fees.—While the physician’s fee is not regulated by this company, the physicians who use Hemo-Therapin get $5.00 and $10.00 for each treatment.”—(From The Journal A. M. A., Jan. 5, 1918.)