Acetanilide

“ Boone in his arduous search for truth on the “much mooted question, ‘Is acetanilid a habit-forming drug?’” we direct his attention to a work that should prove of invaluable assistance. We refer to Bulletin 126 of the Bureau of Chemistry, entitled “The Harmful Effects of Acetanilid, Antipyrin and Phenacetin.” This interesting study to which we have previously called attention records 112 cases of the acetanilid habit. Of this number at least 50, or 44.6 per cent. of the cases were those of patients who took proprietary preparations of the drug. ”

“ What is the difference if one is more dangerous than the other? The fact that the Antikamnia sold abroad differs from that sold in this country some may say is of no special interest to us. Still this fact is worth noting: The dose of acetphenetidin—​phenacetin—​ (71⁄2 grains) is nearly double that of acetanilid (4 grains) : one becoming accustomed to a certain dosage of the nostrum as sold in this country might, while abroad, unwittingly be led to take a double dose of acetanilid.​— (Abstracted from The Journal A. M. A., Feb. 8, 1908.) ”

“ Acetone is a colourless mobile liquid of pleasant smell, boiling at 56·53°C., and has a specific gravity 0·819 (0°/4°C.) . It is readily soluble in water, alcohol, ether, &c. In addition to its application in the cordite industry, it is used in the manufacture of chloroform (q.v.) and sulphonal, and as a solvent. It forms a hydrazone with phenyl hydrazine, and an oxime with hydroxylamine. Reduction by sodium amalgam converts it into isopropyl alcohol; oxidation by chromic acid gives carbon dioxide and acetic acid. With ammonia it reacts to form di- and tri-acetoneamines. ”

“ This was accomplished in fact by changing the formula and substituting acetphenetidin (phenacetin) for the acetanilid. While acetphenetidin is somewhat less toxic than acetanilid, bulk for bulk, the toxicity and therapeutic activity of the two drugs are nearly proportional.
The claim made by many proprietary medicine manufacturers that they are “strictly ethical” because they advertise only to physicians is mere verbal camouflage. There may be no more certain way of insuring the continued use of a nostrum by the public than to have it prescribed by physicians ”

“ It holds that the use of mixtures of acetanilid and sodium bromide in fixed proportion is irrational and prone to induce their indiscriminate use by the public. Despite the perfectly frank declaration of the composition of this mixture that is made by the Mulford Company, the “directions” will be followed blindly and the preparation will be given to “children” and “repeated in half an hour, if necessary” in cases in which it would be held unwarranted to administer a dose of 3 grains of acetanilid to a child. ”

“ Wherever there was a persistent headache, some one of the coal-tar products was used, and “headache powders” multiplied.
But a little further knowledge led physicians to question the expediency of using acetanilid, phenacetin, antipyrin, or any of the coal-tar preparations in other than exceptional cases. Heart-failure and other dangerous results so frequently followed their use that the wisdom of using them at all became doubtful. As our knowledge increases, we are likely to find both the wisdom and necessity entirely disappearing. ”

“ Its continued use destroys the hemoglobin of the blood and produces marked cell-destroying effects throughout the body. Its medical use is for rheumatism, headache, severe coughs, and the like.
A patent medicine now being widely exploited advertises, "We print our formula." So they do, and acetanilid is one of the ingredients. The general public does not know what acetanilid is. The habitué of this "healthful drug" experiences a craving similar to that of other narcotic drug fiends. ”

“ The statement that Labordine is a purely vegetable preparation is probably intended by the proprietors as a good joke on the medical profession. Acetanilid is not usually regarded as a vegetable product, at least it is not ordinarily found in market gardens. The only vegetable source from which acetanilid can be obtained is the beautiful flowering coal-tar bush, from which so many other nostrum vendors obtain their “perfectly harmless, purely vegetable antipyretics,” all composed of acetanilid and something to hide it. ”

“ Kick was subject to severe headaches and was a frequent user of Antikamnia, her favorite remedy for this ailment."
There is but one safeguard in the use of these remedies: to regard them as one would regard opium and to employ them only with the consent of a physician who understands their true nature. Acetanilid has its uses, but not as a generic painkiller. Pain is a symptom; you can drug it away temporarily, but it will return clamoring for more payment until the final price is hopeless enslavement. ”

“ NH2, is only known in the form of its salts, the hydrochloride being obtained by the action of ammonia on the hydrochloride of formimido-ethyl ether (A. Pinner, Ber., 1883, 16, p. 357) . Acetamidine, CH3C : (NH) ·NH2, is alkaline in reaction, and readily splits up into acetic acid and ammonia when warmed with acids. Its hydrochloride melts at 163° C., and crystallizes from alcohol in colourless deliquescent prisms. Acetic anhydride converts the base into an acetamino-dimethyl pyrimidine, acetic acid and acetamide being also formed. ”

“ Our object in again giving space to this preparation—​and practically all we have said applies to the other acetanilid mixtures that are exploited under fictitious names or as chemical compounds (such as ammonol, antikamnia and salacetin or sal-codeia—​Bell) —​is to impress on physicians, by a typical example, the shamefulness of the deceptions practiced on them by nostrum manufacturers to the great injury of the public and of the medical profession. ”

“ Acetone (from the distillation of acetate of lime) dissolves cantharidin with great readiness and ranks next to chloroform in this regard. The solution deposits the substance in crystals by evaporation. The commercial methylic alcohol or wood naphtha also dissolves cantharidin, but to a much less extent than acetone. When acetic acid sp. gr. 1.41 (U. S. P.,) is added to cantharidin, it but slightly acts on it in the cold; heat much increases its solvent power, which is lost on cooling and the substance deposited by standing, though not immediately. ”

“ Each statement has been proved to be a definite and unequivocal falsehood. Phenalgin is not and never was a “synthetic.” Phenalgin is not and never was the only acetanilid mixture containing carbonate of ammonium. Phenalgin is not and never was in any sense of the word non-toxic. Phenalgin, in short, possesses the properties—​both good and bad—​that are common to acetanilid. It is a mixture that the merest tyro in pharmacy could dispense and for which any sophomore medical student could write a prescription without stopping to think. Acetanilid sells at 8 cents an ounce wholesale ”

“ We have before us its hydroiodate, forming colourless crystallized scales, which we find to be very sparingly soluble in cold alcohol or water. At boiling temperature the hydroiodate of atisine is readily dissolved; the aqueous solution on cooling yields beautiful crystals. They agree, according to Dunin, with the formula C46H74N2O4. HI + OH2; this chemist has also shown atisine not to be poisonous. The absence in the drug of aconitine is proved by medical experience, [69] and fully confirmed by the absence of any acridity in the root. ”

“ It gives alkaloidal reactions with such general reagents as platinum chloride, picric acid, &c. Aniline itself may be extracted from the tissues and fluids of the body by petroleum ether, but in any special search it will be better to treat the organs as in Stas’ process—that is, with strong alcohol, acidified with sulphuric acid. After a suitable digestion in this menstruum, filter, and then, after evaporating the alcohol, dissolve the alcoholic extract in water; alkalise the aqueous solution, and extract the aniline by shaking it up with light benzoline. ”

“ As explained in the last chapter, after-generation is the secondary production of acetylene which takes place more or less slowly after the primary reaction is finished, proceeding either between calcium hydroxide, merely damp lime, or damp gas and calcium carbide, with an evolution of more acetylene. As it is possible, and indeed usual, to fit a holder of some capacity even to an automatic generator, the simple fact that more acetylene is liberated after the main reaction is over does not matter, for the gas can be safely stored without waste and entirely without trouble or danger. ”

“ Another frequent offender of this class is the 'cough syrup' or 'pectoral.' These nearly all contain either opium or some closely allied drug. Those of the headache powders and other remedies for the relief of pain which do not contain opium almost without exception are preparations of acetanilid, a substance derived from coal tar, which, although perhaps not so dangerous as morphine, produces an insidious weakening of the heart when used repeatedly, and whose victims number into the thousands. ”

“ Acetone is the popular absorbent, and is a liquid capable of absorbing twenty-five times its own volume of acetylene gas at normal pressure. The filling material varies with each of the manufacturers, but charcoal, asbestos and mineral wool are in very common use. Acetylene is obtained from calcium carbide brought in contact with water, or vice versa, and is compressed and then stored in the cylinders at a pressure varying from 150 to 250 pounds. When fully charged this pressure will vary almost directly with any change of temperature. ”

“ One peculiar and noteworthy feature of acetylene, often overlooked, is that the apparatus is constructed by men who may have been accustomed to gas-making plant all their lives, and who may understand by mere habit how to superintend a chemical operation; but the same apparatus is used by persons who generally have no special acquaintance with such subjects, and who, very possibly, have not even burnt coal-gas at any period of their lives. ”

“ Since acetylene is more soluble in water than any of its diluents or impurities, sulphuretted hydrogen and ammonia excepted, and since the solubility of all gases increases as the pressure at which they are stored rises, the true acetylene in an acetylene holder dissolves in the water more rapidly and comparatively more copiously than the impurities; and thus the acetylene tends to disappear and the impurities to become concentrated within the bell. Simultaneously at the outer part of the seal, air is dissolved in the water ”

“ It is manifest that, where space is to spare, purifiers containing the materials mentioned in Chapter V. can be added to any portable acetylene apparatus, provided also that the extra weight is not prohibitive. Cycle lamps and motor lamps must burn an unpurified gas unpurified from phosphorus and sulphur; but it is always good and advisable to filter the acetylene from dust by a plug of cotton wool or the like, in order to keep the burners as clear as may be. A burner with a screwed needle for cleaning is always advantageous. ”

“ Looked at from one aspect the holder of a fixed apparatus is merely an economical substitute for the wasteful vent- pipe, because it is a place in which acetylene can be held in reserve whenever the make exceeds the consumption in speed. It is perhaps possible to conceive of a large table acetylene lamp fitted with a water- sealed rising holder; but for vehicular purposes the displacement holder is practically the only one available, and in small apparatus it becomes too minute in size to be of much service as a store for the gas produced by after-generation. ”

“ IMPURITIES OF ACETYLENE.--Combining together what may be termed the carbide impurities and the generator impurities in crude acetylene, the foreign bodies are partly gaseous, partly liquid, and partly solid. They may render the gas dangerous from the point of view of possible explosions; they, or the products derived from them on combustion, may be harmful to health if inspired, injurious to the fittings and decorations of rooms, objectionable at the burner orifices by determining, or assisting in, the formation of solid growths which distort the flame and so reduce its illuminating power ”

“ Perfect purification by means of fluid reagents unattended by too great a consumption of pressure is only to be effected by a mechanical scrubber such as is used on coal-gas works, wherein, by the agency of external power, the gas comes in contact with large numbers of solid surfaces kept constantly wetted; or by the adoption of a tall tower filled with porous matter or hollow balls over which a continuous or intermittent stream of the liquid purifying reagent is made to trickle, and neither of these devices is exactly suited to the requirements of a domestic acetylene installation. ”

“ Phosphoric anhydride is also partly deposited in the solid state at the burner orifices, perhaps actually corroding the steatite jets, and always assisting in the deposition of carbon from any polymerised hydrocarbons in the acetylene; thus helping the carbon to block up or distort those orifices. Whenever the acetylene is to be burnt on the incandescent system under a mantle of the Welsbach or other type, phosphorus, and possibly sulphur, become additionally objectionable, and rigorous extraction is necessary. ”

“ The consumption of acetylene is about 75 litres per hour for each millimetre of thickness in the sheet treated, and the normal consumption of oxygen is 1.7 times as much; a joint 6 metres long can be burnt in 1 millimetre plate per hour, and one of 1.5 metres in 10 millimetre plate. In certain cases it is found economical to raise the metal to dull redness by other means, say with a portable forge of the usual description, or with a blowpipe consuming coal-gas and air. ”