The striking physical and chemical properties possessed by common phosphorus, together with the fact that phosphorus is one of the constituents of nerve-tissue, are probably responsible for the reputation which this element acquired generations ago as a remedy for sexual impotence and mental decay. Among scientific men this reputation was a fleeting one, for, when put to the test, the product failed. Like so many products with a similar history, the unearned reputation it obtained from medical men survived in the minds of the laity, and, as is always the case, the survival has been taken advantage of by quacks. Among charlatans and nostrum makers phosphorus is still in vogue. “Weak men’s specialists” and venders of “lost manhood” and alleged aphrodisiac drugs “play up” the phosphorus fallacy for all it is worth.
It is worth noting that the present exploitation of amorphous phosphorus is following along somewhat similar lines. The asserted actions of amorphous phosphorus are such as may be calculated to appeal to the sexual neurasthenic. There is no doubt that the Sharp & Dohme advertisements will bring about an extensive use of this remedy, especially by the uncritical. The psychic element—which plays so large a part in the sexual neurasthenic—will result in favorable reports being given on the drug. Articles may be expected to appear in a certain class of medical journals, telling of the marvelous results that Dr. John Doe has had in the use of “Pill Phosphorus Amorphous S. & D.” A luxuriant crop of testimonials may be expected to follow, and the tout ensemble will go far to sustain the Sharp & Dohme propaganda.
Reproduction—reduced—of half-page advertisement appearing in medical journals.
We are prompted to believe that Messrs. Sharp & Dohme do not fully realize the potentialities for harm that lie in their present exploitation of amorphous phosphorus. It hardly seems possible that a firm of standing would knowingly put on the market and advertise a worthless drug with an appeal to susceptible, infirm old men. The function of introducing new remedies to the medical profession is a responsible one, and a firm that assumes it should have among its officers some one sufficiently conversant with pharmacologic science to prevent such unscientific absurdities as that exhibited in the marketing of amorphous phosphorus, especially under such claims as those contained in the advertisements.—(From The Journal A. M. A., March 7, 1914.)
Dr. Nascher’s Reply to The Journal’s Article—Comments
To the Editor:—Regarding the article on Amorphous Phosphorus in the March 7 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association, I want first of all to clear myself of the implied charge of commercialism in connection with the marketing of the Pill Phosphorus Amorphous by Sharpe & Dohme. I have never had anything to do with the manufacture or sale of those pills, never had any business dealings with Sharpe & Dohme and I have no commercial interest whatsoever in either this or any other drug or drug house. I knew nothing about the advertisement which you reproduced until I saw it in the medical journals. I immediately protested against this unwarranted use of my name and was assured that the statement “Made under the direction of Doctor I. L. Nascher, New York,” was not made for the purpose of misleading and that the ad. would be immediately withdrawn. I gave my approval to the pills made by this firm as I would give my approval to the pills made by any other reliable house for I claim the right to endorse any drug or preparation which I believe to be of value whether it is approved by the Council of [on] Pharmacy and Chemistry or not.
In your general charge of commercialism you make it appear that the exploitation of amorphous phosphorus had the ulterior purpose of appealing to the sexual neurasthenic along the lines of the “lost manhood” ads. So far as this relates to Sharpe & Dohme, I have no interest, but you have included me in your general denunciation. The only reference I ever made to aphrodisiac effects of Amorphous Phosphorus, in all my writings, is contained in these words in the four-page article in the American Practitioner, “In a few cases aphrodisiac effects were noticed.” I have never recommended amorphous phosphorus as an aphrodisiac and in the chapters on “Impotence and Neurasthenia” in my book on “Diseases of Old Age,” I have not mentioned amorphous phosphorus at all.
You say “the treatment seems first to have been brought to notice through a printed slip sent to medical journals generally.” This slip containing an extract from my book which was then in press was sent out about four months ago while I have referred to amorphous phosphorus repeatedly in medical articles during the past three years. In my paper on Senile Debility, Medical Record, Jan. 21, 1911, I said amorphous phosphorus had no effect, as I was then looking for the usual effects of the ordinary phosphorus. In a paper on Senile Mentality, International Clinics, Vol. 4, 21st series, I said I was using amorphous phosphorus but had not yet determined its value. I recommended it in several of my papers, articles and lectures in 1912 and 1913 after I had found that under its use in some cases of senile arteriosclerosis, symptoms were relieved. I sent these slips to the medical journals as a general reply to many inquiries I received about amorphous phosphorus and I stated this in the letters I sent with the slips to some editors. Further inquiries for more information led me to write the paper which appeared in the December issue of that “obscure journal” the American Practitioner. I felt that a medical journal which carried articles by Sir James Barr, ex-president of the British Medical Association, Sir R. W. Philip, R. Murray Leslie, Halliday Sutherland, and such American authorities as Adami, Hare, Brooks, Hirschberg, Knopf, Starkey, Ely, Bissell, Wilcox, Col. Maus, U. S. A., etc., was a representative high class journal and I was pleased to have my paper in it.
To take up the scientific criticism of amorphous phosphorus, permit me to say at the outset that I am a general practitioner, specially interested in geriatrics, and more concerned about obtaining favorable clinical results in my cases than in solving laboratory problems. Nevertheless I have tried for years to obtain the cooperation of expert laboratory workers to help me determine the properties, chemical, physical and physiological, of amorphous phosphorus. In 1909 or 1910 the Rockefeller Institute, in reply to my request for permission to experiment there with amorphous phosphorus, said it did not accept volunteer workers. Four heads of college laboratories could not spare the time. I asked the Council on Pharmacy and Chemistry last November to take up its investigation and was informed that it could not do so at present. I have been perforce compelled to depend mainly on empirical methods with such little experimentation as the facilities of the physician’s office permitted and such little literature as I could find.