The Propaganda for Reform in Proprietary Medicines, Vol. 2 of 2 - Council on Pharmacy and Chemistry

The preparations all had the same appearance. The patients were taken indiscriminately, and we attempted to keep them on the injections as long as possible, in order to compare symptoms. Owing, however, to discharge from hospital, symptoms of mercury intoxication, etc., we were unable in all cases to give a thorough trial with each preparation.

In all, eleven patients were treated and seventy-one injections given—by which time our experimental supply was exhausted.

In each case the drug was given intramuscularly in the buttocks and the patients carefully observed for subjective symptoms of pain and for objective symptoms of swelling, induration, abscess formation, etc. The details are given in Table 1.

As will be noted, in several of the cases the patients were more or less confused and gave rather indefinite and conflicting answers. In attempting to compare the results from the different drugs, by careful tabulation one finds that symptoms were more marked with the respective sample as follows:

Preparation 1 was worse than Preparation 2 or 3 in six cases.
Preparation 2 was worse than Preparation 1 in two cases.
Preparation 2 was worse than Preparation 3 in five cases.
Preparation 3 was worse than Preparations 2 or 1 in one case.

TABLE 1.—DETAILS OF INVESTIGATION BY DR. COLE*

Case	Age	Sex†	Date	Prepara- tion	Dose, Grain	Symptoms
Case	Age	Sex†	Date	Prepara- tion	Dose, Grain	Induration—Pain	Objective
1	25	♂M	6/11/16	2	¹⁄₅	None	Still painful
			6/12/16	1	¹⁄₄	None	None
			6/13/16	2	¹⁄₅	None	Quite painful
			6/14/16	2	¹⁄₄	Hurt for some time	Very tender
			6/16/16	2	¹⁄₅	Hurt for some time	Very tender
			6/17/16	3	¹⁄₅	Not so painful	Less tender than with Preparation 2. Can sit on area; as needle prick is only place that it hurts
			6/18/16	3	¹⁄₅	Not so painful
			Discontinued (salivation)
			6/22/16	2	¹⁄₄	Hurt, but not so long	Slight induration and slight tenderness
			6/24/16	2	¹⁄₄	Hurt, but not so long	Pain “dead stinging” lasts 1 hour
			6/25/16	1	¹⁄₄	Not so bad	About the same
2	32	♂M	6/24/16	2	¹⁄₄	Some pain	No induration
2	32	♂M	6/25/16	1	¹⁄₄	More pain	Slight induration
3	..	♂M	6/12/16	1	¹⁄₅	No symptoms	Painful
			6/13/16	2	¹⁄₄	No symptoms	Painful
			6/14/16	2	¹⁄₄	Says the last two have hurt the more	Painful
			6/16/16	Arseno- benzol		Says the last two have hurt the more
			6/17/16	3	¹⁄₅	More pain than previously	Small painful area
			6/17/16	3	¹⁄₅
			6/18/16	3	¹⁄₅	Not so much pain: in fact, patient says he is over it in a very short while; complained of last one	Some induration at site of injections
			6/19/16	3	¹⁄₅
			6/20/16	3	¹⁄₄
			6/21/16	3	¹⁄₄
			6/22/16	2	¹⁄₄	Some pain	Considerable tenderness now after so many injections
			6/24/16	2	¹⁄₄	Not so much as previously
			6/25/16	1	¹⁄₄
4	36	♂M	6/22/16	2	¹⁄₄	No pain	No tenderness
			6/24/16	2	¹⁄₄	Some pain	Some tenderness
			6/25/16	1	¹⁄₄	Could not sleep at night	Some tenderness; slight induration
5	32	♂M	6/20/16	3	20 minims	Some pain	No induration
			6/21/16	3	25 minims	Some pain
			6/23/16	2	¹⁄₄	Worse pain	No induration
			6/24/16	2	¹⁄₄	Worse pain
			6/25/16	1	¹⁄₄	Worse than any	Slight tenderness
6	20	♂M	6/ 8/16	1	¹⁄₆	Very little
			6/10/16	1	¹⁄₅	Very little
			6/13/16	1	¹⁄₄	Very little
			6/14/16	2	¹⁄₄	Bothered more than others
			6/17/16	2	¹⁄₅	Quite a little pain	Still some soreness
			6/18/16	2	¹⁄₅	Quite a little pain	Still some soreness
			6/19/16	3	¹⁄₄	Considerably less pain than with Preparation 2	Very little tenderness
			6/20/16	3	¹⁄₄	Considerably less pain than with Preparation 2
			6/21/16	3	¹⁄₄
7	30	♂M	6/12/16	1	¹⁄₅	Little pain	None
			6/13/16	2	¹⁄₄	No pain
			6/14/16	2	¹⁄₅	Some pain
			6/16/16	Arseno- benzol
			6/17/16	3	¹⁄₅	Not so much	No tenderness
			6/18/16	3	¹⁄₅	Not so much	No tenderness
			6/19/16	3	¹⁄₅	Very little pain	Only slight amount of induration
			6/20/16	3	¹⁄₄
			6/21/16	3	¹⁄₄
			6/22/16	2	¹⁄₄	Some pain	Some little induration
			6/24/16	2	¹⁄₄	Considerable pain	Some induration
			6/25/16	1	¹⁄₄	“Fine”	Slight induration
8	28	♂MM	6/13/16	2	¹⁄₅	Little pain	Little pain afterward
8	28	♂MM	6/15/16	2	¹⁄₅	Little pain	Little pain afterward
9	28	♀M	6/17/16	2	¹⁄₅	Some complaint of pain. Fairly severe	Very little induration
			6/18/16	2	¹⁄₅	Some complaint of pain. Fairly severe
			6/19/16	3	¹⁄₅	Some pain; says these have hurt very much less than others	Very slight induration
			6/20/16	3	¹⁄₄
			6/21/16	3	¹⁄₄
10	37	♂M	6/12/16	1	¹⁄₅	No symptoms	None
			6/13/16	1	¹⁄₄	No symptoms	None
			6/14/16	1	¹⁄₅	No symptoms	None
			6/15/16	3	¹⁄₅	No symptoms	None
			6/16/16	Arseno- benzol
			6/17/16	3	¹⁄₅	“Much less pain than biniodid or grey oil”	None
			6/18/16	3	¹⁄₅	No complaint	None
			6/19/16	3	¹⁄₅	Says he is over it in one hour	Some induration at site of injection
			6/20/16	3	¹⁄₄	Says he is over it in one hour
			6/21/16	3	¹⁄₄
11	30	♀M	6/11/16	1	20 minims	Considerable; not so much	Considerable pain and tenderness on palpation over area
			6/12/16	2	20 minims	Considerable; not so much	Considerable pain and tenderness on palpation over area
			6/13/16	1	25 minims	Not much pain	Indurated area at pt. of each. Painful
			6/14/16	1	25 minims	Not much pain	Slight induration

* The diagnosis in Case 5 was primary syphilis, and in the other cases, secondary syphilis.

† In this column, ♂M indicates male, and ♀F female. In no case did Wassermann become negative.