NEW ARSPHENAMINE SYNTHETICS IN TREATMENT OF SYPHILIS:  A CONSIDERATION OF TEST PROCEDURE AND OF A NEW DRUG (TRIARSEN)

I. GENERAL PRINCIPLES FOR EVALUATION OF DRUGS

The versatility and resourcefulness of the organic chemist and the enterprise of the pharmaceutic manufacturer have developed within the past fifteen years a plethora of synthetics and forced on clinical and laboratory organizations a new subdivision of activities, that of clinical testing of drugs. With this type of study and responsibility we have now had a little more than a decade of somewhat variegated experience,1 and since the literature from the standpoint of organization and technic is scanty 2 and the need for systematization and review of the field apparent, we undertake in this paper (1) to discuss the general principles which seem to be applicable to this form of clinical and laboratory activity and (2) to present a new drug for its intrinsic interest and possibilities and as illustrative material. The discussion is confined to the field of antisyphilitic and