THE 



POPULAR SCIENCE 



MONTHLY. 



MARCH, 1911 



EHKLICH'S SPECIFIC THEKAPEUTICS IN" KELATION TO 



SCIENTIFIC METHOD 



By FIELDING H. GARRISON, M.D. 



ABMY MEDICAL MUSEUM, WASHINGTON, D. C. 



AN" almost negligible mortality ratio of 12 deaths in 12,000 cases of 

 syphilis treated by " 606 " is the record which Professor Ehr- 

 lich was able to produce at the Konigsberg meeting of German scien- 

 tists/ and in these fatalities, accidental circumstances like shock, heart- 

 failure and extreme debility were coefficients of greater moment than 

 the acid and toxic nature of the remedy itself. As compared with the 

 high ratio of successful treatment — probably towards 90 per cent, or 

 more — the result is significant and striking. As the administration of 

 " 606 " by injection is exceedingly painful in the first stages, Ehrlich 

 compares it with operative surgery in that it can never be given without 

 a certain risk in desperate cases, yet is better worth trying than to leave 

 the patient to suffer or die. Its use is interdicted in disease of the heart, 

 blood vessels or kidneys or in advanced stages of nervous disease, and, 

 with characteristic reserve and caution, its author declines to make any 

 premature claims regarding the cure of the disease with a single dose, 

 although this is the avowed and ultimate of his therapia sterilisans 



1 As reported in Die Heilkunde, Berlin, October, 1910, 357. For a fuller 

 account, see the transactions of the Deutsche Naturforscher und Aerzte as 

 reported in the Deutsche medizinische Wochenschrift (reprinted by G. Thieme, 

 Leipzig, 1910). Subsequent statistics show that the mortality ratio remains 

 about one in 1,000 cases (.01 per cent.). It may be said that expression " 606" 

 is not a trade name, but a convenient abbreviation for the successful term and 

 end of a series of 606 new compounds made and tested. Chemically " 606 " is 

 ihe hydrochlorate of dioxydiamido-arsenobenzol, and was first tried out by 

 Ehrlich's Japanese assistant, Dr. S. Hata. On account of its extreme acidity, 

 it is now neutralized with caustic soda and administered as the sodium salt, 

 the empirical formula of which might be written C^HjoOjNaNa.jAsj. It has 

 recently been patented as " salvarsan." 



vol. Lxxvni. — 15. 



