Evening star., 1942-06-08
Bit Of New Drug Added
To Morphine Doubles
Pain-ki||ing Power
Discovery May Help
Save Precious U.S
Supply Of Opium
BY THOMAS X. HENRY,
Star staff Correspondent

ATLANTIC CITY, n. j.. June 8.
"A means OF doubling the pain
killing potency OF morphine, thereby
possibly cutting In half the amount
Of this opiate necessary during the
emergency. was reported to the
American Medical Association here
today by two Texas doctors.
BY mixing with morphine sulfate,
the form in which the drug usually
Is employed, a bare speck OF rela-
lively new synthetic drug. prostig-
mine methylsulfate, patients get
the same relief from agony as US
ually is expected with twice that
amount of morphine alone, 1t was
shown by Drs. Donald Slaughter
and F. T. Wright Of Baylor Uni
versity medical school.
At the same time, they said, pro-
longed experiments with dog drug
addicts, some of whom have been
morphine victims for five years, show
that with this combination the same
continued dose OF the drug is much
less habit forming. 1t has been i'm
pIoSAblC tliuS ldI W uldhC IllC SdillC
controlled tests with human beings,
although preliminary experiments
indicate the same rule applies.
Opium May Be Saved.
The same effects on pain killing
potency are similar but somewhat
less striking with other opiates COM
monty used in medicine.
For the present, the Texas doctors
believe. the most important result
of their work may be the saving
OF opium. The American supply Of
this drug was almost entirely OBJ
tanned from the Orient. In anticipa-
ton OF possible war DR.. Thomas
Parran. surgeon general of the
Public Health Service. started piling
up big stock-pile in Washington
two years ago. Some of the mill
tary demands have been very heavy,
however. and with no imports a
serious condition might develop in
few years.
The Navy's supply Of morphine at
Pearl Harbor. put up in the form
of "stylettes." individual hypodermic
doses, was an important factor in
saving hundreds Of lives. The
morphine -prostigmine preparation.
DR.. Slaughter said. also can be put
up in stylettes and, experiments in
diate. keep its potency indefinitely.
Many OF the Texas medical
schools students and faculty SUBJ
- octc ~
prostigmine mixtures raising of the
pain threshold. 1t then was tried
on hospital patients in such severe
pain that several morphine doses
a day we're required All reported
that half doses now give them as
great relief as full ones before.
No Prostigmine Shortage.
The prostigmine is used in very
much smaller quantities than the
morphine. There is no possibility of
shortage Of this drug, which can
be synthesized from coal tars. 1t
has been known to medicine about
eight years and is Of much the same
chemical structure as an old drug,
esserine. which came from a South
American plant long used by the
Indian tribes of the Amazon region
in trials by ordeal Until it was
replaced by prostigmine it was used
widely in treatment of the dreaded
eye disease, glaucoma.
The reasons for this strange effect
Of the morphine -prostigmine mix
ture. DR.. Slaughter said, are un-
known. The latter drug is known to
be a stimulator Of the parasympa-
thetic nervous system which is re-
sponsible for many unconscious ac-
tions of man. Used alone. it has no
pain-killing effect whatsoever. and
may even lower the pain threshold.