FELLOWS’ SYRUP OF HYPOPHOSPHITES
No very exact information concerning the composition is furnished by the manufacturers (Fellows Medical Mfg. Co., New York). They say that the product
“... contains the chemically pure hypophosphites of iron, quinin, strychnin, calcium, manganese and potassium, agreeably blended in the form of a bland, stable syrup with a slightly alkaline reaction....
“Each fluid drachm contains the equivalent of 1-64th of a grain of pure strychnin.”
The Fellows’ Hypophosphites advertising furnishes something like a barometer of the popular status of hypophosphites. In one circular (undated, but, from certain references contained in it, presumably issued ten or fifteen years ago) we read:
“It is an indubitable fact that the hypophosphites have earned the distinction of having their therapeutic value more completely established than have any other remedial agents.... it is only by accepting the current view, which was originally advanced by Mr. Fellows, that we can satisfactorily account for the incontestable fact that the hypophosphites are of supreme importance in the treatment of a very extensive variety of affections.... the hypophosphites increase the consumption of oxygen and the elimination of carbon dioxide. In this manner, they stimulate nutrition and promote constructive metamorphosis.... It is now universally conceded that the widespread utility of the hypophosphites is due to the fact that they substantially improve metabolic processes, thus increasing the disease-resisting capacity of all the tissues.”
The circular, continuing, emphasizes the “incomparable phosphorus-contributing properties” of Fellows’ Syrup, its “extraordinary reconstructive properties” and “the magnificent results which invariably attend its employment in the treatment of anemia, chronic bronchitis, chlorosis, neurasthenia, mollities ossium, delayed union of fractures, rickets, convalescence,” etc.
A circular bearing the copyright date 1914, on the other hand, admits that:
“The theories for the favorable action of Fellows Syrup of Hypophosphites have undergone several changes.”