Atoxyl

And he determined that the test animals were doing a little synthesizing themselves: their metabolism converted the arsenic in Atoxyl into a more useful and less toxic compound.

MANUFACTURING DEPRESSION Gary Greenberg 2010

Ehrlich concluded that Atoxyl was effective in animals for exactly this reason: its reactive chemical group latched onto the “parasites” in the same way that dye latched onto tissues.

MANUFACTURING DEPRESSION Gary Greenberg 2010

And he had discovered something significant about Atoxyl and other arsenic derivatives: at the end of their chemical chain was a reactive chemical group, an open link of nitrogen and hydrogen that could easily be joined to other molecules.

MANUFACTURING DEPRESSION Gary Greenberg 2010

Atoxyl turned out not to work in humans; even worse, it destroyed their optic nerves, making them blind before they slept themselves to death.

MANUFACTURING DEPRESSION Gary Greenberg 2010

He also heard that a couple of British doctors had used Atoxyl, a compound derived from arsenic, to treat animals infected with sleeping sickness.

MANUFACTURING DEPRESSION Gary Greenberg 2010