Keasbey and Mattison Company’s Effervescent Alkalithia is sold with the following statement of composition:
“Each dose or heaping teaspoonful contains 1 grain of Caffeine, 10 grains each of Bi-carbonates of soda and potash, and 5 grains of Carbonate of Lithia.”
The A. M. A. Chemical Laboratory reports that Alkalithia is an effervescent mixture which contains alkaline carbonates and bicarbonates together with caffein, free tartaric acid and free citric acid. The major portion of the alkali carbonates and bicarbonates is converted into citrates and tartrates when the preparation is dissolved in water—as is done before it is taken. An excess of alkali is present, however, as the solution has an alkaline reaction. Each “heaping teaspoonful” (which was found to be about 4.85 Gm.) contains about 0.044 Gm. of caffein (the manufacturers claim 0.0648 Gm. per heaping teaspoonful). As taken, Alkalithia, therefore, represents caffein in a solution of alkali tartrate, citrate and bicarbonate containing free carbonic acid. If it is assumed that all of the tartrate and citrate in Alkalithia is converted into carbonate in the organism, a “heaping teaspoonful” of Alkalithia would represent about 2.9 Gm. of sodium bicarbonate. This assumption is, however, not correct, for it is known that tartrates are not completely converted into carbonates in the organism.
According to the label on the bottle, this mixture of caffein and alkali salts is “a common sense remedy for the relief and treatment of conditions dependent upon perverted metabolism as manifested by neuralgic, rheumatic, cardiac and renal symptoms.” Wrapped with a trade package is a circular in which is discussed the “uric acid diathesis” as “a cause of Rheumatism in its various forms, Calculus, Gravel and Inflammation of the Bladder and Kidneys, Asthma, Hay Fever, Catarrh, Quinsy and Bronchitis, Eczema, Hives, Itching and Burning of the Skin, Palpitation of the Heart and Cold Hands and Feet, Dizziness, Mental Depression, Melancholia, Neuralgia, Chorea, Hysteria, Numbness and a great variety of purely nervous symptoms.” The arguments for the use of Alkalithia as “a safe and scientific treatment for the uric acid diathesis” found in the circular constitute an indirect appeal to the laity (conflict with Rule 4).
In the circular matter sent direct to the physicians, Keasbey and Mattison claim that in rheumatism, Alkalithia is prescribed by the medical profession more often than any other remedy. The claim is made that, “In five minutes the urine will be discolorized and analysis will show it to be loaded with urates.” The manufacturers further assert:
“You can change the character of the urinary secretion in a few minutes completely” by Alkalithia, and “In nine cases out of ten, when the doctor prescribes ‘Alkalithia’ his patient greatly improves, or gets well.”
The firm advises that “Renal Insufficiency” be determined by the old method of multiplying the ounces of urine in twenty-four hours by the last two numbers of the specific gravity, adding 10, which gives the number of grains of solids excreted in the twenty-four hours. If this is low, no matter what the cause, they advise Alkalithia, “that ideal eliminant.”
The Council declared Alkalithia inadmissible to New and Nonofficial Remedies because the claims made on the label and the circular accompanying the trade package lead the public to its detriment to depend on this preparation (Rule 4); and because the therapeutic claims are unwarranted (Rule 6).—(From Reports of Council on Pharmacy and Chemistry, 1919, p. 65)