( Reprint from Medical News of December 15, 1894.) 
On the 
VALUE OF ANTIPYRIN 
to the Surgeon. 
BY 
Roswell Park, A.M., M.D., 
Professor of Surgery, Medical Department University of Buffalo ; Surgeon to the Buffalo 
General Hospital. 
During the winter of 1885 my attention was called to an 
article by someone whose name I do not now remember, stating 
that he had found a solution of antipyrin to be an efficient hem- 
ostatic in the treatment of urethral hemorrhage. This statement 
was made to me by a visitor at one of my clinics at a time when 
I was in need of something that might act in this way. Accord- 
ingly, I at once made a 4 per cent, solution, tested it for this pur- 
pose, and found it very satisfactory. This was my first intro- 
duction to antipyrin as a hemostatic. Charmed with the result 
thus produced, I at once began experimenting with it in a variety 
of surgical cases. Having learned, in one way and another, that 
it was a most efficient and practically harmless styptic, I desired 
to ascertain whether it was one that could be safely used inside 
of the body-cavities, and whether it had any antiseptic proper- 
ties. I tested it carefully in my own laboratory, and learned, 
by repeated experiments, that while not a strong antiseptic it,, 
nevertheless, had marked antiseptic properties, holding its own 
fairly well with many of the other synthetic productions that 
have of late been so freely placed upon the market for this pur- 
pose. It compares, indeed, very favorably in this respect with 2 
most of the anilin or coal-tar derivatives that we use in medicine. 
I then began experimenting upon animals, or, rather, using the 
drug during various experiments, employing for this purpose a 
4 per cent, or 5 per cent, solution in sterilized water. I soon 
learned that this could be used anywhere upon the peritoneum, 
upon the bowel, upon the brain-surface, or anywhere else, inva- 
riably exhibiting its styptic properties and causing no symptoms 
that lead me to regret its use. Thus fortified, I began its gen- 
eral use in aseptic surgery. Now I keep a standard solution in 
my clinic, where I always have fifteen or twenty pounds of air- 
pressure ready to be used for spraying, and small hand-sprays, 
which, with this air-pressure, are conveniently at hand for any 
emergency. I have never hesitated to spray a 5 per cent, solu- 
tion on an exposed and oozing surface, whether this were on the 
cortex of the brain, in the nose or mouth, in the peritoneal cavity, 
upon injured liver or bowel, or anywhere else. 
I have found that antipyrin has power not sufficient to 
contract vessels of any size that spurt, but to almost instantly 
blanch and check oozing from any surface from which blood is 
escaping just fast enough to be an annoyance. I have hundreds of 
times demonstrated this efficiency in my clinic and at various 
times, when visiting other operators, have been able to make the 
same demonstrations for them. As a consequence, a number of my 
surgical friends are now using this remedy for this purpose. It 
may be injected into a cavity, as in bone ; it may be applied on 
compresses to the oozing surface, or it may be sprayed as men- 
tioned ; but no matter how applied, under circumstances indi- 
cated within the limits given, it will seldom, if ever, be found to 
disappoint. 
I think it essential to say that I have thus tested it bac- 
teriologically, because some might otherwise hesitate to use it. 
My own preference for operating this is, whenever possible, by the 
dry method, and in many cases, unless something is positively 
indicated, I let nothing come in contact with the fresh wound- 
surfaces-neither antiseptic solution nor anything save sterilized 
compresses. Upon such a surface, however, if necessary I would 
not hesitate to employ a sterilized solution of antipyrin, believ- 
ing that it is sufficiently antiseptic to be left without feeling that 
one must remove every particle of the solution. Moreover, it is 
practically unirritating, since 1 have never known harm to occur 3 
from its entrance into any part of the body where it was not 
called for. I should have no fear, for instance, if a little of the 
solution trickled down into the peritoneal cavity after it had 
been applied to the surface. 
Antipyrin has this great advantage over such styptics as 
the salts of iron, in that it constringes the minute vessels and 
does not leave any external clot in the way, or that may break 
down, or that in any sense shall be undesirable, as are the clots, 
for instance, made by Monsell's solution. In cases of 
epistaxis, for example, a solution of antipyrin may be 
sprayed into the nose with the greatest benefit. It will 
serve a most admirable purpose after intranasal operations, as I 
have many times convinced myself. In the urethra, as after in- 
ternal urethrotomy, it will have the same beneficial effect. In 
certain operations on the mouth I have had patients occasionally 
gargle a weak solution, or have inserted tampons saturated with 
a solution of antipyrin to which a little glycerin has been added. 
Up to the present I never have known any unpleasant result 
from its use in any part of the body in solutions not exceeding 
5 per cent, for the purposes stated. Sometimes, in fact, I have 
used solutions as strong as io per cent. 
This leads me to speak of certain other purposes for 
which a 4 per cent, or a 5 per cent, solution of antipyrin may be 
locally used. In 1888 I mentioned to my friend Professor Hin- 
kel, of this city, the relief that I had found antipyrin to afford 
in certain cases of inflammatory occlusion of the nose, as well as 
its hemostatic virtues. He began using it, was much pleased 
with its effects, and wrote an elaborate article entitled " Clinical 
Notes Upon the Use of Antipyrin in the Nasal Passages," which 
was published in the New York Medical Journal for October 28, 
1888. I speak of this particularly, because quite recently I have 
seen an article, emanating from New York, claiming originality 
for this discovery, the author apparently being quite unmindful 
of the article published by Dr. Hinkel some years previously. 
When antipyrin is to be used for any medicinal purpose 
necessitated by affections of the head, as, for instance, headache, 
coryza, etc., there is no way by which its effects are so speedily 
gained with so little disturbance and so little danger, as by 
spraying it into the nose. It must be acknowledged that these 
solutions give rise to some temporary smarting and irritation of 4 
the mucous membranes, and my custom is first to spray in a 
weak solution of cocain and to follow it in a few minutes with 
the antipyrin. At other times the two may be combined. The 
effect of the cocain is not merely to anesthetize the surface, but 
to constringe the vessels, this effect, however, quickly passing 
away. The effect of the antipyrin seems to be to carry out to a 
much more marked degree the conditions thus produced by the 
cocain, the constringing of the tissues lasting sometimes for 
several hours, which would not be the case when cocain alone is 
used. For "that stuffy feeling " of which many patients speak, 
complaining of a catarrhal condition of the upper air-passages, 
accompanied by a certain amount of discomfort or actual pain 
in the anterior part of the head, there is nothing in my experi- 
ence that begins to afford so speedy relief. For my own part, 
if I ever have to resort to antipyrin to gain relief from headache, 
I should prefer to use it locally rather than to take it internally. 
The quantity required is much less, which of itself is an impor- 
tant item, while the effect produced is manifested very much 
more quickly. The same is true also of certain acute affections 
of the throat ; and the discomfort attending an ordinary attack 
of pharyngitis, with the soreness radiating into the neck and 
head, can be more quickly relieved by this spray than by any 
other measure that I know of. Of course, I do not mean to imply 
that this solution will be all sufficient. Other and more general 
measures are called for at the same time ; but I maintain from a 
quite extensive experience with the drug that it will give early 
relief more satisfactorily than anything else of which I have 
knowledge. 
Undoubtedly, the effects, their styptic or analgesic, that I 
have eulogized are due to the same constringing effect upon the 
tissues of the body. Antipyrin in its local effects is generally 
astringent, but that it has these properties comparatively few 
are yet aware, and this therapeutic note is written with the view 
of enabling others to take advantage of a very valuable fact.