Sodium salicylate

“ For general or constitutional treatment of acute rheumatism, sodium salicylate is indicated. In order to gain the best results from this drug, it should be administered with the idea of rapidly saturating the system. ”

“ For this reason a soluble salt of theobromin, theobromin sodium salicylate, first introduced and advertised under the proprietary name “Diuretin,” has come to be used to a considerable extent.
Theobromin sodium salicylate—also called theobromin and sodium salicylate—​is prepared by interaction, in molecular proportions, of theobromin, sodium hydroxid and sodium salicylate, the theobromin first being treated with sodium hydroxid in the presence of a suitable solvent, then the sodium salicylate added and the whole brought to dryness. ”

“ Certain unpleasant or toxic effects are produced by salicylic acid and salicylate of sodium; such are nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, frontal headache, tinnitus, incomplete deafness, vertigo, tremor, quickened respiration, very rarely amblyopia and even temporary amaurosis, and not unfrequently delirium. A feeling of prostration and general misery is not uncommon. ”

“ It is evident, however, that hexa­methylen­amin, sodium iodid and sodium salicylate do not. When given orally they do not undergo material decomposition in the digestive tract, they are rapidly absorbed, they cause no direct local reaction, and in the conditions in which they are used the hour or so which is required for absorption is immaterial, especially as they are used continuously for some time. Mercuric chlorid does indeed produce some local irritation, but there is as yet no convincing evidence that its intravenous injection causes less injury than oral administration. ”

“ Diuretin is quoted in current price-lists at $1.75 an ounce, whereas the price of theobromin sodium salicylate is only 35 cents an ounce. Many hospitals use diuretin, and both physicians and students often have only hazy ideas as to what it is. If the preparations of theobromin sodium salicylate now on the market are identical with Diuretin they should certainly be used, not only because they are less expensive, but because the descriptive name will continually remind the physicians of what they are using. ”

“ As in rheumatism, the medicine should be continued in smaller doses after the acute symptoms have subsided for several days, the tendency to relapse being marked if the drug be discontinued too soon. In subacute articular gout and in the irregular forms of the disease, where the medicine has to be continued for some time, salicin and the oil of wintergreen are to be preferred to salicylic acid and the sodium salicylate. They are less liable to disturb the stomach and to produce toxic effects. ”

“ Sodium salicylate with acetanilid makes a fairly good combination in certain rheumatic troubles, but it is not indicated by any means as a cure-all, as one would judge from the literature sent out by the Sal-Codeia-Bell people.​— (From The Journal A. M. A., Nov. 4, 1905.)
SANATOGEN Cottage Cheese—The New Elixir of Life [AP]
The psychology of advertising is nowhere better exemplified than in the “patent medicine” and proprietary fields. The reason is evident. ”

“ The formula was thus commented on in the article previously quoted from The Journal:
“Tongaline ... is essentially a preparation of sodium salicylate,... The Mellier Drug Company realized the impossibility of creating any marked demand for a nostrum unless it had some real drugs in it—hence the presence of the salicylates. What the actual composition of Tongaline is, no one but the manufacturers know. At one time the following was given as the formula:
“These amounts refer to the quantity of drugs in each fluidram of the preparation. ”

“ Alkalies, of which liquor potassæ is the most eligible. It is to be given in ten to twenty minim doses, largely diluted. It is valuable [Pg 92] in robust, plethoric, rheumatic or gouty individuals with psoriasis of an acute or markedly inflammatory type; it is not to be given to debilitated or anæmic subjects.
Salicin, sodium salicylate, and salophen in moderately full doses act well in some cases. Occasionally thyroid preparations have a good effect.
Potassium Iodide, in doses of thirty to one hundred grains, t.d., acts favorably in some instances ”

“ Sal′icylāte, a salt of salicylic acid.—adjs. Sal′icylāted, combined with salicylic acid; Salicy′lic, obtained from the willow.—Salicylate of sodium, a product occurring in small white crystals, used very largely in acute rheumatism. [L. salix, salicis, a willow.]
Salicornia, sal-i-kor′ni-a, n. a genus of apetalous plants—the glass-wort, marsh-samphire. [Fr.,—L. sal, salt, cornu, a horn.]
Salient, sā′li-ent, adj. leaping or springing: (fort.) projecting outwards, as an angle: prominent: striking: (geom.) denoting any angle less than two right angles: (her.) ”

“ Headache.—Take 10 grains of salicylate of sodium every hour, for 2 or 3 hours, or 7 grains of phenacetin every half-hour for an hour and a half. A drachm of potassium bromide at night will often relieve headache and sleeplessness. More "natural" cures are to lie down in a dark room and fast, or to sip a glass of cold water slowly. An aperient is often all that is needed. ”

“ Salicylic acid is now never given internally, being replaced by its sodium salt, which is much cheaper, more soluble and less irritating to mucous membranes. The salt has a sweet, mawkish taste.
Salicylic acid and salicin (q.v.) share the properties common to the group of aromatic acids, which, as a group, are antiseptic without eing toxic to man-a property practically unique; are unstable in the body; are antipyfetic and analgesic; and diminish the excretion of urea by the kidneys. ”

“ Add from thirty to thirty-five cubic centimeters of salicylic acid mixture, namely, thirty cubic centimeters of sulfuric to one gram of salicylic acid, shake until thoroughly mixed, and allow to stand from five to ten minutes, with frequent shaking; then add five grams of sodium thiosulfate and ten grams of potassium sulfate. Heat very gently until frothing ceases, then strongly until nearly colorless. Dilute, neutralize, and distil the same as in the gunning method. ”

“ The toxic and antitoxic actions of neutral salts form a case in point. Pure solutions of sodium salts, even sodium chloride, are strongly toxic to many cells, particularly those of marine organisms, as the work of J. Loeb and his successors has shown with especial clearness; but if to the pure solution a little calcium salt is added, this toxic action is prevented or greatly diminished; the calcium (or other favorable salt) counteracts the toxic action of the sodium salt—in other words, has an antitoxic action. ”

“ There is one substance which will produce that yellow light; it is a curious metal called sodium—a metal so soft that you can cut it with a knife, and so light that it will float on water; while, still more strange, it actually takes fire the moment it is dropped on the water. It is only in a chemical laboratory that you will be likely to meet with the actual metallic sodium, yet in other forms the [pg 326] substance is one of the most abundant in nature. Indeed, common salt is nothing but sodium closely united with a most poisonous gas, a few respirations of which would kill you. ”

“ In addition to positive interferences from styrene and xylene in the workplace, the ingestion of sodium benzoate in food, salicylic acid, or aspirin by the worker will produce a positive interference. ”

“ These statements are rather vague, possibly because they are an attempt to mystify. The product, however, may be assumed to be a mixture (not a chemical combination) of calcium salicylate and strontium salicylate. The therapeutic claims made for the preparation are:
“Superior to ordinary salicylates. ”

“ The body formed in the latter case is chemically the same as that produced in the former, there being present the same weight of calcium, the same weight of oxygen, and the same weight of silicic acid in each. Again, if to a solution of silicate of soda, one containing a soluble lead salt, such as the nitrate, be added, the silicic acid will unite with the oxide of lead in the nitrate of lead, and the acid constituent of that body will unite with the oxide of sodium or soda, forming nitrate of soda. ”

“ The thing is to try and get the disease out of the system. It is always a good plan to commence with a good purge; after this has worked off, give a course of salicylate of soda, from two to [272] fifteen grains [1] three times a day, either in tabloid form, put up in cachets, or even dissolved in a little water. If this medicine does not give relief in twenty-four hours, try aspirin or salicine, the doses are the same. ”

“ Salicylic acid is in addition irritant and astringent, continued in large doses is apt to derange digestion; best to be administered on a full stomach.
Uses.—For acute rheumatism, influenza, strangles and purpura where there is much sloughing; also as a surgical wash, salicylic acid one part, borax one part to thirty or forty parts of water. Salicylic acid is a more powerful antiseptic than carbolic acid. Salicylic of soda is freely antiseptic. Salicylic acid is highly recommended in intestinal flatulence, given in two drachm doses with one ounce of aromatic spirits of ammonia. ”

“ It is important to ascertain what the effect of the addition is upon the quality of the food, and upon the digestive functions. Lehmann has shown that salicylic acid does not usually contribute any injurious quality to food, but apprehends that the indiscriminate use of such substances may be dangerous. Experiments have been made in our Department of Agriculture to determine what effect in retarding digestion may be possessed by such substances as salicylic acid, boric acid, sodium acid sulphite, saccharine, beta-naphthol, and alcohol. ”

“ Alteratives.—Of these the salicylates and the benzoates are, by some, greatly prized, in that they act especially on uric acid, promoting the elimination thereof. The benzoates are favoured in examples in which the kidneys are not above suspicion, the latter disability contra-indicating the use of the salicylates. Some, like Ewart, advocated a course of benzoates in alternation for periods of a week or a fortnight with a saline treatment. By Lecorche and Haig, salicylate of soda in doses of 60 grains or more per diem was advocated continuously for prolonged periods. ”

“ Is it not a blessing to know that nature has munificently provided a means whereby these distressing evils may be checked and definitely eradicated by a daily use of such an enemy to, and destroyer of, disease as the chloride of sodium, universally known as common salt? ”

“ Its sodium salt is transformed into the isomeric C6H4 (OC6H5) CO2Na when heated to 300°. When heated in air for many hours it decomposes, yielding carbon dioxide, (phenol and xanthone. Acetyl-salicylic acid (salacetic acid) , C6H4 (O·COCH3) ·CO2H, is obtained by the action of acetyl chloride on the acid or its sodium salt (K. Kraut, Ann., 1869, 150, p. 9) . It crystallizes in needles and melts at 132° C. (with decomposition) . Hydrolysis with baryta water gives acetic and salicylic acids. It is used in medicine under the names aspirin, acetysal, aletodin, saletin, xaxa, &c. ”

“ Further, it has been shown that putrid substances when mixed with either permanganate of potassium or the sulphite of sodium, and then injected, are harmless, although the same quantity of putrid matter injected without either of these salts destroys life. ”

“ In those rather common cases in which the skin is inactive and perhaps harsh the salicylate often improves that important organ of oxidation and elimination, and should it not do so the addition of the ammonium carbonate may be tried, especially in feeble persons with weak hearts. ”

“ Salicylic acid or orthohydroxybenzoic acid is either obtained from oil of winter-green or is made synthetically by Kolbe's process from phenol and carbonic acid. Artificial salicylic acid generally contains impurities (creasotic acids) which act very injuriously upon health. When pure, salicylic acid employed as a food preservative has never produced decided injurious effects, although administered by itself in fairly strong solution it acts as an irritant to the stomach and kidneys, and sometimes causes skin eruptions. ”

“ This is the dialyzing vessel, and it is into this that the mixture of silicate and hydrochloric acid must be put. The solution should not be more than an inch deep in the dialyzing vessel, which is then made to float upon distilled water in a larger vessel of suitable size. The distilled water should be changed every day, until no precipitate can be obtained in it with nitrate of silver, and when this point is arrived at, all the chloride of sodium will have passed through the vegetable parchment into the larger vessel of water, and nothing but silicic hydrate will remain behind in solution. ”

“ Physiology has been a boon to humanity and an inexhaustible field of research to the scientific.
In a chemical point of view there is no more important mineral constituent in the human body than the chloride of sodium, for it occurs nearly in every part of the system, both solid and fluid, in close and intimate relation with the organic compounds, and it materially influences their chemical and physical properties; for instance, the albumen partly owes its solubility to the presence of salt, the quantity of which causes the differences which it presents as regards its coagulation ”