“Free Chlorine, 0.35 per cent.; Calcium Chloride, 0.30 per cent.; Mercurous Chloride, 0.03 per cent.; Lithium Chloride, 0.04 per cent.; Calcium Hydrate, 0.01 per cent.; Opium, 0.02 per cent.; Ethyl Alcohol, 0.10 per cent.; water to 100 parts.”
It will be noticed that the composition claimed for Number “3” is essentially similar to that claimed for Chloron. It differs from Chloron in that the amounts of some of the constituents are somewhat greater, and in that, like Chlorax, it contains some tincture of opium.
The A. M. A. Chemical Laboratory reports that the free chlorin in a specimen of Number “3” was 0.024 gm. in 100 c.c. and the total active (“available”) chlorin 0.173 gm. per hundred c.c., or about 50 per cent. of the claimed amount. The examination indicates that Number “3” is of unreliable composition. The Chlorine Products Company, Inc., submitted no clinical evidence for Number “3” to which it refers as “our Syphilis remedy.” It stated that two physicians had used the preparation “with good results,” and admitted that “the company requires further evidence before pushing it.”
The Council declared “Chloron,” “Chlorax” and “Number ‘3’ ” in conflict with the rules governing admission to New and Nonofficial Remedies. All are of unreliable composition (conflict with Rule 1). The therapeutic claims made for the preparations are not substantiated by acceptable evidence and are unwarranted and misleading. Chloron is inferior as an antiseptic to the well-known surgical solution of chlorinated soda on account of its low chlorin content and uncontrolled reaction. There is no warrant for the claim that Chlorax is useful in the treatment of “Kidney Conditions,” “Diabetes,” “Acute Infections,” “Blood Dicrasias,” “Lithemias and Rheumatism,” and “Nervous Conditions,” nor is there warrant for the claim that “Number ‘3’ ” is a remedy for the purification of the blood or a “Syphilis remedy” (conflict with Rule 6).
The names of these pharmaceutical mixtures are not descriptive of their composition (conflict with Rule 8).
All three preparations are irrational. No evidence has been furnished that the lithium salt is of value in the mixtures. It is not rational to combine an active chlorin preparation and a mercury salt in one mixture, nor is there evidence that the addition of opium to the preparations proposed for internal use is of value or rational. Experimentation with Number “3” as a “Syphilis remedy” is to be severely condemned in that those on whom it is used will in the meantime be deprived of efficient medication (conflict with Rule 10).—(From Reports of Council on Pharmacy and Chemistry, 1919, p. 70)
ELARSON OMITTED FROM N. N. R.
Report of the Council on Pharmacy and Chemistry
The Council has authorized publication of the following report announcing the omission of Elarson from New and Nonofficial Remedies.