10 



ACETANILID, ANTIPYRIN, AND PHENACETIN. 



as closely as possible the conditions existing among the people at 

 large, so far as the harmful effects of acetanilid, antipyrin, and 

 phenacetin are concerned. Much information relative to poisoning 

 by these drugs could have been obtained from the records of hospitals, 

 particularly those located in the larger cities, but it was thought that 

 information from this source would not be of a strictly representative 

 character. The conditions affecting hospital patients differ from 

 those surrounding patients in private homes, and this difference is 

 particularly marked in the case of the drugs under consideration. 

 For this reason it was deemed advisable to secure the desired informa- 

 tion from physicians at large rather than from hospital records. 



Four hundred replies were received to the 925 letters sent out, and 

 the information submitted is set forth in the following pages. 



QUESTION 1. To WHAT EXTENT DO YOU USE THESE DRUGS (ACETANILID. ANTI- 

 PYRIN, PHENACETIN) IN YOUR PRACTICE? 



From this it would appear that acetanilid is used frequently or 

 moderately by 120, or 30 per cent, of the physicians; antipyrin by 

 only 20, or 5 per cent ; and phenacetin by 147, or 36.7 per cent. On 

 the other hand, 112, or 28 per cent, of the physicians state that they 

 do not use acetanilid at all ; and 100, or 25 per cent, use it but rarely ; 

 208, or 52 per cent, never use antipyrin, and 90, or 25 per cent, use 

 it but rarely ; 94, or 23.5 per cent, of observers never use phenacetin ; 

 and 8G, or 21.5 per cent, employ it but rarely. 



Thus, of the three drugs phenacetin appears to be most used by 

 physicians, with acetanilid second, while antipyrin is apparently used 

 to a much less extent than either of the others, only 5 per cent of the 

 physicians stating that they employ it frequently or moderately. The 

 reason for the more extensive use of phenacetin is undoubtedly to be 

 found in the fact that it is generally regarded as being the least harm- 

 ful of these agents. This was indicated particularly in the answers 

 to question No. 4. 



