Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
July,  1888. 
Note  on  Antipyretics. 
361 
stance  containing  sulphur,  which  would  be  likely  to  be  used  in  or  be 
present  in  beer,  which  would  be  extracted  by  ether  from  its  acidulated 
solutions,  and  hence  be  likely  to  interfere  with  the  above  method  of 
detecting  saccharin.  The  Inland  Revenue  chemists  have  expressed 
the  opinion  that  they  would  be  able  to  recognize  saccharin  in  beer  by 
its  taste.  This  might  be  so  in  the  absence  of  hop-substitutes,  but  the 
presence  of  quassia  would  produce  an  ethereal  extract  of  so  intensely 
bitter  a  taste  as  wholly  to  mask  the  sweetness  due  to  saccharin.  At 
any  rate,  if  the  Inland  Revenue  chemists  have  devised  any  process  by 
which  the  saccharin  can  be  isolated  from  beer  in  all  cases  in  such  a 
state  of  purity  as  to  be  recognizable  by  the  taste  it  is  to  be  hoped  that 
they  will  depart  from  their  usual  practice  and  communicate  their 
knowledge  to  their  brother  chemists. — The  Analyst,  June  1888,  p.  103. 
NOTE  ON  ANTIPYRETICS.! 
By  Edward  R.  Squibb,  M.  D. 
The  word  "  antipyretic,'^  although  not  new,  has  but  recently  come 
into  common  use  as  a  substitute  for  the  word  "  febrifuge."  The  words 
are  synonymous  and  of  the  same  ultimate  derivation.  Antipyretic  is 
that  which  is  opposed  to  fire,  and  fever  comes  from  fire.  Febrifuge  is 
that  which  causes  fever  to  fly,  or  to  be  fugitive.  Hence  the  signifi- 
cance of  both  words  is  to  oppose,  counteract  or  dispel  fever.  The 
choice  between  the  words  seems  to  be  a  matter  of  taste  or  fashion,  and 
febrifuge  seems  to  be  going  out  of  use. 
The  oldest  and  best  febrifuge  is  quinine,  and  this  still  stands  at  the 
head  of  the  class  of  newer  antipyretics.  The  origin  and  application 
of  quinine  are  too  well  known  to  require  notice  here,  and  its  value  is 
too  well  established  to  be  in  much  danger  from  the  more  modern 
agents.  Until  quite  recently  the  great  drawback  to  the  use  of  qui- 
nine was  its  high  cost,  and  almost  all  the  recent  antipyretics  were  dis- 
covered through  the  efforts  of  chemists  either  to  make  quinine  artifi- 
cially, or  to  make  substitutes  for  it.  The  making  of  quinine  synthet- 
ically or  artificially,  although  several  times  announced,  has  not  yet 
been  accomplished ;  and  its  great  abundance  and  low  cost  for  the 
present,  and  probably  also  for  the  future,  have  taken  away  the  incen- 
tive to  make  it  synthetically,  because  if  so  made  it  could  not  be  so 
1  Read  before  The  Kings  County  Medical  Association,  Nov.  1,  1887;  repub- 
lished from  Ephemeris  III,  p.  1063. 
