“None of the subjects of the experiment [Marriott’s] experienced any effect whatsoever from the administration of the drug.... Almost all of the ingested hypophosphite is promptly eliminated unchanged.... “These experiments [Forbes’] demonstrate conclusively that the hypophosphites possess no specific value as a source of phosphorus for the body. This is not to be wondered at in view of the fact that 85 per cent. of the phosphorus ingested in the form of hypophosphite is excreted unchanged, and there is no proof that even the remaining 15 per cent. is available to the organism. It is doubtful if there are any conditions in which the body suffers from lack of phosphorus. Even should such conditions exist, phosphorus, in the form that it occurs in the ordinary foods, or as phosphates, is more efficient in supplying the deficit than hypophosphites that must be oxidized before utilization and which are only about 15 per cent. oxidized, if at all. For example, half a glass of milk contains more available phosphorus than three large doses of hypophosphites of 15 grains each, as great a dosage as is usually given. “What, then, is the therapeutic value of hypophosphites? There is no reliable evidence that they exert a physiologic effect; it has not been demonstrated that they influence any pathologic process; they are not ‘foods.’ If they are of any use, that use has never been discovered.” In view of the foregoing, it seemed to the Council advisable to examine the claims under which a few of the proprietary hypophosphite preparations are marketed. The following are representative: FELLOWS’ SYRUP OF HYPOPHOSPHITES No very exact information concerning the composition is furnished by the manufacturers (Fellows Medical Mfg. Co., New York). They say that the product “... contains the chemically pure hypophosphites of iron, quinin, strychnin, calcium, manganese and potassium, agreeably blended in the form of a bland, stable syrup with a slightly alkaline reaction.... “Each fluid drachm contains the equivalent of 1-64th of a grain of pure strychnin.” The Fellows’ Hypophosphites advertising furnishes something like a barometer of the popular status of hypophosphites. In one circular (undated, but, from certain references contained in it, presumably issued ten or fifteen years ago) we read: