God's Own Narcotic

Many a U.S. doctor dreads the monthly appearance of the Reader's Digest: chances are that Paul de Kruif will be tub-thumping for some new variety of snake oil. And chances are that a lot of patients will clamor for the new remedy, then grumble when told it is dubious or premature.

Ribald allusions to "Doctor de Kruif" (Bacteriologist de Kruif has a Ph.D., no M.D.) were a stock joke at the A.M.A. Convention last fortnight. Last week in the A.M.A. Journal Federal Narcotics Commissioner H. J. Anslinger viewed with alarm De Kruif's latest discovery: Demerol ("God's Own Medicine--1946," Reader's Digest for June), a painkilling drug which acts much like morphine but is not, said De Kruif, habit-forming.

Not so, protested Anslinger, many cases of Demerol addiction have been recorded. He forecast "a wave of Demerol addiction" if doctors and the public swallow De Kruif's "reckless and dangerous statements." First found in Germany in 1939, Demerol has been synthesized in the U.S. since 1941, was placed under federal narcotics control in 1944.

It was by no means the first time De Kruif's knuckles had been rapped in the A.M.A. Journal. Among other condemned De Kruif marvels:

P: A camphor-phenol treatment for athlete's foot, which led many Digest readers to experiment with corrosive self-medication. Result: ulcerated feet.

P: Ertron, a vitamin preparation touted as "Hope for the Victims of Arthritis," but deflated by the Journal as "unimpressive."

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