Solution, Fowler Potassium

Potassium Arsenite Solution. Fowler s soln arsenical soln. Made from arsenic trioxide 10 g potassium bicarbonate 7-6 g alcohol 30 ml distilled water to one liter. Very poisonousl... 

The introduction of Tasteless Ague Drop or Fowler s solution (alkaline solution of potassium arsenite) in 1670 began the ascendancy of arsenic in Western pharmacopoeia. By the end of the nineteenth century, every major disease known was... 

Historical medical applications of arsenic include the use of Salvarsan to treat lues or Fowler s solution (1% aqueous solution of potassium arsenite) for dermatoses, blood formation, and bone growth. Only in the treatment of some diseases caused by tropical parasites has arsenic not yet been substituted [9,45]. Certain homeopathic medicines also contain considerable amounts of arsenic. Depending on therapeutic instructions the daily intake would be between 0.1 and S mg [46]. 

Potassium acetate, 20 629-630 Potassium acid tartrate, 20 637 Potassium alkoxides, 20 604-605 Potassium a-hydrohexafluoroisobutanoyl fluoride, 13 724 Potassium amides, 20 605 Potassium analysis, of water, 26 31 Potassium arsenite (Fowler s solution), 3 276... 

It is of historical interest that Fowler s solution, which contains 1% potassium arsenite, was widely used as a medicine for many conditions from the eighteenth century through the mid-twentieth century. Organic arsenicals were the first pharmaceutical antimicrobials and were widely used for the first half of the twentieth century until supplanted by sulfonamides and other more effective and less toxic agents. 

In 1879, human chemical exposures were studied during the Industrial Revolution period. It was found that chronic dermal contact with shale oil, coal distillates, petroleum products, or chimney soot could cause skin cancer. An inordinate prevalence of lung cancer was exhibited among coal miners and was the first internal cancer associated with a known occupational exposure. An iatrogenic cancer of the skin, due to long-term ingestion of potassium arsenite from Fowler s solution (used as a tonic in small doses), was recorded by 1887. In 1895, excessive cancer of the urinary bladder was identified in workers from the aniline dye industry. 

The period of systematic development of arsenic drugs commenced at the end of the nineteenth century, and brought about some remarkable improvements in medicine. Arsenic compounds, administered as Fowler s solution (potassium arsenite), Donovan s solution (arsenic iodide) or de Valagin s solution (arsenic trichloride), were employed to treat rheumatism, arthritis, asthma, malaria, trypanosome infections, tuberculosis, and diabetes. N-Acetylar-sanilic acid (C8H10ASNO4), and primarily Sal-varsan (arsphenamine, C12H14AS2CI2N2O2) were discovered by Ehrlich in 1909, and remained in use to treat syphilis until the advent of antibiotics in the 1940s (Baumler... 

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