W. C. Schulte, M.D., Salt Lake City.

To the Editor:—I am interested in knowing the attitude of the Council on Pharmacy and Chemistry regarding the products of the Intravenous Products Company of America, 121 Madison Avenue, New York City. If the Council has already reported, please refer me to the appropriate number of The Journal. If it has not, please give me any information available.

H. B. Gessner, M.D., New Orleans.

Answer.—The Intravenous Products Company of America has not requested the Council on Pharmacy and Chemistry to examine any of its intravenous specialties, nor have they been discussed in The Journal or examined in the American Medical Association Chemical Laboratory. The firm’s list of specialties bears a striking resemblance to those of other “intravenous specialty” firms. Endoarsan, like Venarsen of the Intravenous Products Company of Denver, is stated to contain a cacodylate (dimethylarsenate) along with mercury and iodid. Venarsen was reported on unfavorably by the Council (The Journal, May 22, 1915, p. 1780), the inferior efficacy of sodium cacodylate was discussed (The Journal, March 25, 1916, p. 978) and the worthlessness of sodium cacodylate as a spirocheticide confirmed by H. N. Cole (The Journal, Dec. 30, 1916, p. 2012), William G. Ward (The Journal, Feb. 3, 1917, p. 390), and R. L. Sutton (The Journal, Feb. 17, 1917, p. 566). Endosal, like Venosal of the Intravenous Products Company of Denver, is said to contain salicylate and a colchicum preparation (the latter is also said to contain iodids). Venosal was found unacceptable for New and Non­official Remedies by the Council on Pharmacy and Chemistry. Like other “intravenous” firms, this company advertises the intravenous administration of drugs such as sodium iodid and hexa­methylen­amin. The objections to and the dangers of indiscriminate administration of drugs intravenously was recently emphasized in a report of the Council on Pharmacy and Chemistry “Some of Loeser’s Intravenous Solutions” (The Journal, April 16, 1921, p. 1120).—(Query from The Journal A. M. A., Dec. 10, 1921.)

IODEX

At fairly frequent intervals physicians receive through the mail free samples of “Iodex,” a black ointment sent out in small, circular aluminum boxes. Iodex is sold by Menley and James, Ltd., New York City, under the claim that it is a preparation of free iodin,[252] minus the objectionable features that go with free iodin. The preparation was examined in the A. M. A. Chemical Laboratory in 1915, and found practically devoid of free iodin. The laboratory also reported that when 1 or 2 grams of Iodex was rubbed on the skin of the forearm on several subjects and the urine collected and tested for iodin, the results were negative. This disproved the claim that “thirty minutes after inunction [with Iodex] iodine can be found in the urine.”

The findings of the laboratory, which were summed up in a report (The Journal, June 19, 1915) of the Council on Pharmacy and Chemistry on Iodex, were essentially as follows:

1. The composition is incorrectly stated; the actual iodin content is only about half of that claimed.