STANOLIND LIQUID PARAFFIN OMITTED FROM N. N. R.

Report of the Council on Pharmacy and Chemistry

As explained in the report which follows, “Stanolind Liquid Paraffin” was omitted from New and Non­official Remedies at the request of the proprietors. Announcement of this omission was made in the preface to New and Non­official Remedies, 1918, but publication of the Council’s report was postponed pending actual conflict with the rules. The Council now authorizes publication of the report because a circular indirectly advertising the product to the public was found enclosed with the trade package of Stanolind Liquid Paraffin.

W. A. Puckner, Secretary.

Stanolind Liquid Paraffin was admitted to New and Non­official Remedies in 1916, when its method of marketing conformed to the rules of the Council. This brand of liquid petrolatum, by action of the Council, has been omitted from New and Non­official Remedies on request of the Standard Oil Company of Indiana, its manufacturer, who wrote to the Secretary of the Council stating that:

“In order that our facilities for the manufacture of this oil shall be constantly engaged, it will be necessary for us to find sales on a larger scale than in the past. To do this under our present advertising and marketing arrangement we feel will be impossible.”

This letter, in addition, suggested “that physicians are not prescribing Stanolind Liquid Paraffin in any considerable proportion of their orders” and “that the situation which now confronts us would not be materially helped if Stanolind was specified in all such prescriptions.” Further, the Council is asked to consider whether it “might be willing to declare this preparation as not a Council product,” on the alleged grounds that “liquid paraffin is not medicinal in its action and passes through the digestive tract in practically unaltered condition.”

The Council holds that Stanolind Liquid Paraffin is a drug, and that, therefore, its direct advertising to the public is in contravention of the Council’s rules. Constipation should be treated by dietary and hygienic means. Evacuants are only temporary measures. Liquid petrolatum is medicinal; it greatly modifies the intestinal flora; it acts as a lubricant and emollient; it modifies the absorptive powers of the intestinal mucous membrane; it is capable of influencing the digestion of fats. In short, liquid petrolatum, being a drug, its indiscriminate and excessive use should not be encouraged.—(From Reports of Council on Pharmacy and Chemistry, 1918, p. 72)