To sum up then, Phenalgin is as big a humbug as Peruna ever was. It is sold to-day under claims that are just as false as those used six years ago. The Etna Chemical Company is perpetrating a stupendous fraud on the medical profession to-day and it is doing it not only through the agency of the United States mail, but with the aid and support of the following medical journals—and others—in which the Phenalgin advertisement appears:
| Medical Record | American Journal of Obstetrics |
| New York Medical Journal | Medical Century |
| Pediatrics | Pacific Medical Journal |
| Lancet-Clinic | Dietetic and Hygienic Gazette |
| American Journal of Surgery | Medical Standard |
| International Journal of Surgery | Eclectic Medical Journal |
| American Medicine | Am. Jour. of Clinical Medicine |
It is conceivable that in some cases it is not easy for those editors and publishers of medical journals who insist on relying on their own judgment to satisfy themselves that certain preparations are not worthy of being advertised. No such difficulty occurs in the case of Phenalgin. Here the issues are clear cut. The product is exploited under claims that are both false and vicious and their falsity and viciousness are perfectly evident to any freshman medical student. The only charitable explanation of the appearance of the Phenalgin advertisements in the medical journals listed is that the editors and publishers have not given the subject the attention it deserves and to which their readers are entitled. Perhaps it would help if their attention were called to the matter by their subscribers.—(From The Journal A. M. A., Jan. 27, 1912.)
PHENO-BROMATE
An analysis of this preparation made at the instance of the New Haven Medical Association, by its chemist, and sent by Dr. Charles J. Foote of New Haven to The Journal is in part as follows:
The package was marked “Sample package, Pheno-Bromate. The Pheno-Bromate Company, New York, U. S. A.” The box contained a number of tablets and a package of powders in papers marked, “Physicians’ 10 grain powders, Pheno-Bromate.” The substance in the papers was a white crystalline powder not homogeneous. It was completely soluble in hot water. The hot water solution on cooling yielded a mass of thin crystalline plates. This material was found to melt at 113.5 C. It gave no color with ferric chlorid and a positive isonitril test. The portion insoluble in ether amounted to 49.8 per cent. of the powder and consisted of potassium bromid. Quantitative determinations of potassium and bromin in the original solution confirmed this result. In my opinion, the powder consists of approximately equal quantities of acetanilid and potassium bromid. Qualitative tests of the tablets indicated that they had the same composition except for a small quantity of some excipient not entirely soluble in water. Yours truly,
Herbert E. Smith,
Chemist New Haven Medical Association.
Before the Food and Drugs Act Pheno-Bromate was advertised as “a synthetic combination of the phenetidin and bromid groups, and not, as is the case with many analgesics and antipyretics, a mixture of various coal-tar derivatives” and as “the safest and best of all sedatives.” The dose recommended in most cases is 20 grains—equal to 10 grains each of acetanilid and potassium bromid. Since the Food and Drugs Act has gone into effect its label states that it is “a perfect combination of a phenol and bromin derivative containing 282 grains of acetphenetidin, U. S. P., per ounce.” What a boon it was to mendacious manufacturers that the patent rights on phenacetin expired before the Food and Drugs Act went into effect.—(Abstracted from The Journal A. M. A., July 14, 1906, and April 18, 1908.)