WHEELER’S TISSUE PHOSPHATES
L. E. Warren, Ph.C., B.S.
“Wheeler’s Tissue Phosphates,” known also as “Compound Elixir of Phosphates and Calisaya,” is advertised as a nerve food and a nutritive tonic. The label states that it contains calcium, iron, sodium trihydrogen phosphates, alkaloids of Peruvian bark with 121⁄2 per cent. of alcohol. The preparation is sold by the T. B. Wheeler, M. D. Co., of Rouses Point, New York. According to the manufacturer, Wheeler’s Tissue Phosphates
“... is an inorganic combination of the phosphates of iron and calcium and hydrogen (phosphoric acid) together with hydrochloric acid, hydrocyanic acid, and quinine, cheerful coloring, and a delicious, cordial-like flavoring.”
“... The iron is the green, inorganic phosphate and the calcium the simple white phosphate of your early student days....”
The preparation is a red liquid, having an acid reaction, a sweet-bitter taste and the odor of wild cherry. Qualitative tests indicated the presence of calcium, iron, a phosphate, a chlorid, a sulphate, quinin or cinchona alkaloids, alcohol, sodium, cochineal coloring and invert sugar. Ammonium salts, glycerol, citrates or lactates were not found. From the quantitative values obtained the preparation may be taken to represent:
Sp. gr at 25C./25C. | 1.1087 |
Alcohol (per cent, by volume) | 11.35 |
| Gm. per 100 c.c. | |
Calcium phosphate [Ca3(PO4)2]* | 0.397 |
Iron phosphate (FePO4.4H2O)* | 0.068 |
Chlorid (as hydrochloric acid) | 0.407 |
Sodium sulphate (Na2SO4.10H2O) | 0.043 |
Quinin sulphate (U. S. P.) | 0.041 |
Sodium phosphate (Na2HPO4.12H2O) | 0.065 |
Invert sugar | 26.824 |
Water, cochineal and flavor, to make | 100 c.c. |
* It should be understood that the calcium and iron salts are held in solution by the hydrochloric acid.
The dose of Wheeler’s Tissue Phosphates recommended by the manufacturer is a tablespoonful or about 15 c.c. (1⁄2 oz.). The total calcium in a dose of the preparation is equivalent to about one-sixth of an average dose of the official calcium chlorid, and the total phosphate to each dose is equivalent to about one-fourth of a dose of the official diluted phosphoric acid. Each prescribed dose of the preparation contains about 0.01 gm. (2⁄13 grain) of iron phosphate or about one twenty-fifth of the average dose, and to obtain a Pharmacopeial dose of iron phosphate the patient would be obliged to take three-fourths of the contents of an entire bottle—or 12 ounces—of the preparation. If it be assumed that all of the chlorid present is in the form of free hydrochloric acid, each dose of the preparation contains the equivalent of about two-thirds of one Pharmacopeial dose of diluted hydrochloric acid. Each dose of the preparation contains about 0.0062 gm. (1⁄10 grain) of quinin sulphate, or about one-sixteenth of the average tonic dose. In other words, to obtain the amount of quinin sulphate given in the U. S. Pharmacopeia as the tonic dose, the patient would be required to swallow 71⁄2 fluidounces of the proprietary preparation, or the contents of nearly half a bottle. The fallacy of prescribing Wheeler’s Tissue Phosphates either for its quinin or its iron content is apparent.
Wheeler’s Tissue Phosphates is, then, a mildly bitter flavored syrup which contains nearly 12 per cent. of alcohol, small quantities each of calcium phosphate and hydrochloric acid and insignificant amounts of iron and quinin salts. In other words, essentially it is a sweetened solution of small quantities of calcium phosphate in very dilute hydrochlorid acid together with 12 per cent. of alcohol.
Bearing in mind the analysis of the preparation, how ludicrous some of the claims appear:
“Tissue Phosphates is not a hypophosphite preparation; it is not a combination of glycerophosphates or other organic salts, or so-called peptonates and manganates, all recently condemned by the best therapeutic opinion here and in Europe, as much slower and less active than the simpler salts. The iron is the green, inorganic phosphite and the calcium the simple white phosphate of your early student days. Nature takes these simple salts and builds them rapidly into lecithin, bone, and other tissue, without the delay incurred by splitting up the organic salts before she can recombine them.”
“Tissue phosphates is in fact a chemical food.”
“The formula, suggested by Professor Dusart, of Paris, combines in an easily assimilable and agreeable cordial; medium medicinal doses of Phosphorus, the Generator of Nerve Force; Calcium Phosphate, for Cell Development and Nutrition; Sodium Phosphate, a stimulant of Liver and Pancreas and Corrective of Acid Fermentation in the Alimentary Canal; Iron, generating in the Blood, Heat and Motion, Phosphoric Acid, Tonic in Sexual Debility; Alkaloids of Calisaya, Antimalarial and Antipyretic; Extract of Wild Cherry, Tonic, yet Calming Irritation and Diminishing Nervous Excitement; Ethyl Alcohol 12.5%; and Aromatics.”
Although the claim is made that the “formula” of Wheeler’s Tissue Phosphates has been “suggested by Professor Dusart,” such of Dusart’s papers as were available in this country[111] failed to disclose any “formula” that was at all comparable to this product.
[Editorial Note.—The investigation verifies facts that must be obvious to every physician who has given the matter thought. “Wheeler’s Tissue Phosphates” is an unscientific, shotgun mixture whose most active and powerful drug is the alcohol it contains. That it was not years ago relegated to the realms of obsolete and discarded preparations is a commentary alike on the lack of scientific discrimination and the persuasive power of advertising. While in the past “Wheeler’s Tissue Phosphates” has been advertised extensively in medical journals, it seems that now the chief, if not the only beneficiary of the advertising appropriation for this product is the New York Medical Journal, which weekly heralds the “Delicious” and “Sustaining” qualities of “The Ideal Tonic for Fastidious Convalescents.”]—(From The Journal A. M. A., May 5, 1917.)