During the winter of 1929, while attending postgraduate clinics in Europe, the opportunity was given one of us (Dr. Glaser) to observe the treatment of patients with congenital syphilis with acetarsone administered by mouth. The enthusiasm with which this drug was recommended by such eminent pediatricians as Pirquet, Knöpfelmacher, von Reuss and Leiner of Vienna, and Finkelstein, Czerny, Meyer and Rosenstern of Berlin, as well as published reports from other Austrian and German clinics, led us to undertake the investigation here reported.
HISTORICAL DATA
Ehrlich apparently first prepared 3-amino-acetyl-4-hydroxyphenyl-arsonic acid as 594 in the series of investigations that led to the discovery of 606 (arsphenamine). We have been unable to find the records of Ehrlich's experiments with "594," and Raiziss1 stated that no authentic account by Ehrlich concerning it exists. Bauer and Benda2 stated that Ehrlich discovered "594" in 1909, but that it was little used because it