9 
obscure pains, generally neuralgic in character, as facial neuralgia, 
heniicrania,® and the lancinating pains of tabes dorsalis. At the 
present time enormously large amounts are used for the relief of 
symptoms of this sort, and comparatiyely very little as a means of 
reducing fever. 
Drugs to relieve pain have always been especially popular with the 
general public, who prescribe for themselves all sorts of preparations 
vdth absolutely no idea of their poisonous properties. Hence the 
legitimate use of the antipyretics quickly was made subservient to an 
indiscriminate use, especially in the treatment of headache, so that 
Siefert,^ as early as 1888, pointed out the great danger of allo^ving 
the apothecaries to dispense these preparations directly to the general 
pubhc. Despite this early recognition of the danger of their promis- 
cuous' use in this class of disorders their use has become almost uni- 
versal, and at the present time they are dispensed directly to the 
laity over the counters of every drug store and at almost every soda 
fountain ^vith no warning as to their danger and vdth meager directions 
as to dosage. 
The early history of this popular use of the antipyretics, especially 
of acetanilide, is closely connected with their exploitation in proprie- 
ta.ry remedies. Appearing as one of the first, if not the first of these, 
were the notorious “Antikamnia” preparations. The promoters of 
these products claimed to have discovered a new and wonderful 
member of the antipyretic series which was far more efficacious than 
those in common use and without their deleterious effects. These 
claims were such that chemists both in this country and abroad 
became interested and a large number of analyses were made. These 
showed that instead of a new and harmless remedy Antikamnia was 
really a mixture which sometimes contained one thing, sometimes 
another, but always the already well-known aniline compound, 
acetanilide. Among the first analyses was that of Hall,^' who found 
77.5 per cent acetanilide and 19.3 per cent sodium bicarbonate. In 
the same year Goldman^ reported acetanilide 70 per cent, sodium 
carbonate 20 per cent, and caffeine 10 per cent. 
There seems to be no literature bearing directly upon the exhibition 
of caffeine and the alkaline carbonates with the antipyretics and it 
will probably never be knovm just why caffeine was introduced into 
the general type acetanilide prescription. Two reasons may be sug- 
gested, however. It had been knovui for a very long time that caf- 
a Chomjakow u. Ljwow, Wmtsch., 1885, VI, 887. White, N. Y. Med. Rec., 1886, 
XXX, 293. Ungar, Centralbl. f. klin. Med., 1886, VII, 777. Secretan, Revue med. 
de la Suisse rom., 1887, VII, 29. 
&Siefert, Munch, med. Wchnschr., 1888, XXXV, 850, 867. 
cHall, Druggists Circular, 1891, XXXV, 99. 
^Goldman, Pharm. Ztg., 1891, XXXVI, 255. 
