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ACETANILID (OR ANTIFEBRIN). 843 
drug by a certain firm who have exclusive control of all manu¬ 
factured and sold under that name, hence it demands a higher 
price. In prescription-writing, we should therefore write for 
acetanilid as a matter of economy, and because it gives equally 
good results. 
Drs. Hare and Wood, of Philadelphia, Pa., have conducted 
numerous experiments, both physiologically and clinically, with 
this drug, and it is from their works published I have drawn 
much of the material for this paper. 
Physiological Action. —ist. Upon the nervous system it acts 
as a sedative, quieting the sensory portion of the nerves and 
spinal cord. In large, poisonous doses it produces anaesthesia, a 
total loss of reflex action, and motor and .sensory paralysis. Dr. 
Hare claims that the sensory side of the spinal cord and sensory 
nerves are first affected, and later the motor apparatus, and that 
the muscles are influenced by the poison only indirectly. 
2 d. On the circulation it has but little effect, unless used in 
large and poisonous doses. In such cases there is an immediate 
fall of arterial pressure, with a diminution in the size of pulse 
wave, and all the evidence of cardiac and circulatory depression, 
although death is said to result from respiratory failure. The 
cause of this fall of blood-pressure is said to be due to the direct 
depressing action on the heart, associated with the vaso-motor 
system, as asphyxia causes no rise in pressure. In medicinal 
doses there may be either an increased or diminished pulse rate. 
Its action upon the blood in large doses is said to be marked, 
causing it to become brownish-red in color, decreasing its ozon¬ 
izing and oxygen-carrying power, and finally reducing largely 
the haemoglobin to methaemoglobin. Its action upon corpuscles 
is undetermined, some claiming they are disorganized, oth¬ 
ers that they are not. Dr. Hare claims that in moderately large 
poisonous doses, the drug may not affect the corpuscles, but if 
continued for some days, or if a very large dose be used at one 
time, the corpuscular destruction is certain to occur, and the 
free haemoglobin appears in the urine, that the normal alkalin¬ 
ity of the blood is lessened, the urine becoming dark in color. 
