An Ethical (?) Proprietary Exploited Under Fraudulent and Lying Claims
“PHENALGIN IS JUST WHAT WE HAVE ALWAYS
SAID IT TO BE.”
—Etna Chemical Co. in 1905.
| “Phenalgin is a synthetic coal-tar product.” —Etna Chem. Co. in 1898. | “Unlike the coal-tar synthetic, phenalgin is a stimulant rather than a depressant.” —Etna Chem. Co. in 1910. | ||
| TEMPUS OMNIA REVELAT! | |||
“Phenalgin is a synthetic coal-tar product”—thus ran the advertisements some years ago, when the medical profession was willing to take—or was compelled to take—the word of the manufacturer of proprietary remedies at its face value. Then the Council on Pharmacy and Chemistry was brought into existence. One of the first pieces of work done by the Council was the publication of the results of a number of analyses of headache powders. Phenalgin was among them. Analysis showed that Phenalgin was not a synthetic but a simple mixture of the following ingredients in the proportions given:
| Acetanilid | 57 parts |
| Sodium bicarbonate | 29 parts |
| Ammonium carbonate | 10 parts |
The Etna Chemical Company, which puts out this product, was considerably disturbed by the Council’s exposure. It “came back” at the American Medical Association with the slogan “Phenalgin is just what we have always said it to be.” What, up to that time, the Etna Chemical Company had “always said” Phenalgin to be, was:
1.—Phenalgin is a synthetic.
2.—Phenalgin is the only preparation of the kind.
3.—Phenalgin is non-toxic.
These, in brief, were the three things that Phenalgin had been asserted to be. Each statement has been proved to be a definite and unequivocal falsehood. Phenalgin is not and never was a “synthetic.” Phenalgin is not and never was the only acetanilid mixture containing carbonate of ammonium. Phenalgin is not and never was in any sense of the word non-toxic. Phenalgin, in short, possesses the properties—both good and bad—that are common to acetanilid. It is a mixture that the merest tyro in pharmacy could dispense and for which any sophomore medical student could write a prescription without stopping to think. Acetanilid sells at 8 cents an ounce wholesale; Phenalgin at $1.00 an ounce, wholesale.
All these facts and many more were given to the profession by the Council on Pharmacy and Chemistry in The Journal more than six years ago—before even the Food and Drugs Act came into effect. After that law became operative, the Etna Chemical Company was compelled to say something on the label that it had never said before, namely, that Phenalgin contained 50 per cent. acetanilid. But the law not only required them to add a fact to their label, but it also compelled them to remove a falsehood. When the pure food law went into effect, Phenalgin was labeled a “malaria germicide.” It is not a malaria germicide and never was a malaria germicide, and the Etna Chemical Company dared not risk taking the question into court so it removed the statement.