Dreser, Heinrich

Years later, in 1898, Heinrich Dreser, a chemist working for Bayer Laboratories, conducted a series of clinical tests with the previously discovered tetra-ethyl morphine (now renamed... 

In 1874, British chemist Alder Wright published reports of experiments that produced a new chemical compound based on an alteration of morphine diacetylmorphine. Wright s discovery went unnoticed until 1898, when the great German pharmacologist Heinrich Dreser (who also discovered aspirin see Chapter 14) rediscovered the compound and noted that it was twice as potent as morphine. Because this new compound was so powerful, it was viewed as a new treatment with heroic possibilities and was christened heroin. Heroin was used immediately as a cough suppressant and pain reliever. Not until many years later was it recognized that heroin was even more likely than morphine to produce dependence. 

Aspirin", acetylsalicylic acid, was obtained by Charles Gerhardt, a German chemist, as roOH a natural byproduct of coal tar in 1853. Its medical value was not recognized until 1899 by T V Heinrich Dreser, a German chemist. It is an analgesic, antipyretic, and antirheumatic. 

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