30 ADULTERATED DRUGS AND CHEMICALS. 



Meta-acetphenetidin, or the nieta variety of phenacetin, was pre- 

 pared by Ph. Wagner" in 1885. This he accomplished by gently heat- 

 ing together two parts of meta-phenetidin and one part of acetic anhy- 

 drid, cooling the resulting mixture, transferring the cooled ciTstalline 

 mass to a funnel, washing out part of the impurities b}- means of 

 water, and finally recrystallizing from hot water. The purified, glis- 

 tening crystals were white, with a tint of red, melted at 96.7 C. 

 (unconnected), and were difficultly soluble in water. 



After having prepared para-am idophenetol, Hallock 6 experimented 

 further with this compound and reported one observation in the fol- 

 lowing words: "This oil combines, like anilin, directly with acetyl 

 chlorid to a crystalline solid." This crystalline solid, for the greater 

 part, undoubtedly consisted of para-acetphenetidin, or phenacetin 

 proper. Hal lock, however, did not isolate the crystalline body and 

 establish its physical properties and chemical composition. If he had 

 done this it would have been a positive anticipation of the patent, 

 and that part of the patent alleging novelty or "a new pharmaceutical 

 product" would have had its mainstay undermined. All information 

 about the crystalline body was left vague and inconclusive by Hallock, 

 who evidently did not think that it possessed any value or was worth 

 further investigation. The statement that he obtained such a body 

 by the interaction of acetyl chlorid and para-amidophenetol was not 

 useful to the public. 



The great desideratum with the medical profession has been a safe, 

 effective, and inexpensive antipyretic. The oldest and best febrifuge 

 at this time (1880) was quinine sulphate, but on account of its costli- 

 ness many efforts had been made by chemists either to prepare quinine 

 artificially or to find an efficient substitute. In 1842 Gerhardt c dis- 

 tilled a mixture of quinine, water, and caustic potash and obtained a 

 useful base which he called chinolin. Its high price from this source 

 forbade its use medicinally, but by treating the alkaloid cinchonin in 

 a similar manner he produced the same base. He was very much 

 encouraged by the results of this investigation, for it was found that 

 this comparatively cheap base and its salts were active antipyretics. 

 Chinolin tartrate was the earliest largely used artificial febrifuge. 

 Chinolin itself was used as a nucleus of many synthetic antipyretics 

 or quinine substitutes. The successful preparation of synthetic qui- 

 nine has been reported from time to time, but at this writing has not 

 been accomplished. Stimulated by the success of (lerhardt, K. Hlasi- 

 wetz and L. Uarth'' distilled resins in the same manner in which quinine 



J. prakt. Chem., 1885 (2), 82: 70. 



6 Am. Chem. J., 1879, 1: 271. 



j 'Ann. (Liebig), 1842, 42: 310; J. prakt. Chem., 28: 65. 

 UWien. Akad. Ber., 1864,49:203; through Chem. Centralb., (2), 9:806. ) 



