Five years before penicillin was invented, doctors used arsenic-based compounds to treat neurosyphilis, a nasty late-stage progression of syphilis that attacked the brain and central nervous system.
This arsenic-based treatment began in 1910.
Merck and Company began in 1903 as a drug manufacturer and began manufacturing this chemical.
In 1917 , the company was “seized’” by the U. S. Government when World War I broke out. Freer, the war, the company was returned to Merck.
In 1926, Merck moved its major headquarters from to New York to build a huge lab in Rahway, NJ>
In the 1930s, the lab made many scientific breakthroughs, including the discovery of vitamin B 12. The lab also created TRYPARSAMIDE , an organic arsenic-based drug to treat neurosyphilis.
This 1938 pamphlet advertises this drug, provides information about it, and folds out to a large, colorful depiction of the back view of the brain and spine. The Merck Company hired Leon Schlossberg to create a highly detailed, colorful representation of the back view of the human brain and spine.
I’m sure this fold out medical art was displayed in some doctor’s office in 1938.
On one side of the fold-out pamphlet are different sections on the description of TRYPARSAMIDE, precautions, and dosage/adminisration.
If artwork of the human brain and spine could ever be artistic, this is it. The lithographed color side folds out to show the posterior side of the “Cerebrospinal Axis.”
The pamphlet, folded, measures 5 x 8 1/2 inches. Unfolded, it expands to 8 1/2 x 25 inches One of the upper folds is starting to separate, but it has no effect on the amazing artwork.
This is a very, very rare medical pamphlet, probably because almost all of them were thrown out when penicillin was discovered.
The only other one I know of is housed within The History of Medicine Advertisement Collection at the University of North Texas.
If you’re a medical provider, a pharmacist, or someone who is very interested in old medical adverting and treatment, this piece could work.
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