THE DENVER MEDICAL TIMES, A MONTHLY MEDICAL JOURNAL. THOMAS HAYDEN HAWKINS, M.D., LL.D., Editor. VOLUME XIX. 1899---1900. Denver, Colorado. COTRIBUTORS TO VOLUME XIX. Bachman, C. F., of Allegheny, Pa. Hughes, M. A., of Salt Lake City, Utah. Reed, R. Harvey, of Rock Springs, Wyo. Stuver, E., of Fort Collins, Colo. Tyler, G. E., of Denver. Colo. THE MEDICAL EFFICACY OF NOSOPHEN AND ANTINOSINE By JAMES A. LYDSTON, M.D., Ph.G., Ophthalmologist and Otologist to St. Joseph's Hospital; Late Chief of the Eye and Ear Chicago, Illinois. So great is the multiplicity of indifferent therapeutical agents thrust upon the medical fraternity at the present time that we should rejoice over the presentation of any chemical agent that is really entitled to a place in our therapeutical armamentarium by virtue of true merit. Among the many products that have been extolled in recent years as possessing su perior germicidal and antiseptic qualities are two chemical compounds, viz., nosophen and antinosine, the first being chemically, as described by Classen and Loeb, tetra iodophnolphthalein, and the latter the sodium salt of the same. Nosophen being a light impalpable yellowish gray, practically odorless, tasteless powder, very stable, requiring a temperature of 220 C. for decomposition, containing 61.7 per cent. of iodine in combination resulting from chemical reaction between iodine and phenolphthalein solutions, characterized by being insoluble in water and acids, soluble with difficulty in alcohol, glacial acetic acid, chloroform and ether, and readily soluble in alkaline solutions, from which it is readily separable at low temperature by carbonic acid-acid in character, containing as it does two hydroxyl groups, it is freely soluble in alkalies, the hydrogen in both hydroxyl groups being replaced by the metal. The sodium salt thus obtained has been isolated and is styled antinosine-this compound, the sodium salt of nosophen, is a dark blue amorphous, odorless, non-toxic, non-irritating *Read before Chicago Medical Society, May 24, 1899. |