Using a pharmacy schoolmate’s financing and presidential leadership, Henry K. Mulford (1866 to 1937) reorganized his own namesake corporation in 1891 with himself as vice president. Soon “H. K. Mulford Company of Philadelphia” began synthesizing and compounding an astonishing array of pharmaceuticals, including (beta-)eucaine lactate. Less toxic than alpha-eucaine, beta-eucaine had the additional advantage of stability in aqueous solutions sterilized by prolonged boiling. Sold by Mulford as “one-quarter grain” hypodermic tablets (above), the lactate formulation of eucaine was less irritating to patients than was the hydrochlorate one. (Copyright © the American Society of Anesthesiologists’ Wood Library-Museum of Anesthesiology.)

Using a pharmacy schoolmate’s financing and presidential leadership, Henry K. Mulford (1866 to 1937) reorganized his own namesake corporation in 1891 with himself as vice president. Soon “H. K. Mulford Company of Philadelphia” began synthesizing and compounding an astonishing array of pharmaceuticals, including (beta-)eucaine lactate. Less toxic than alpha-eucaine, beta-eucaine had the additional advantage of stability in aqueous solutions sterilized by prolonged boiling. Sold by Mulford as “one-quarter grain” hypodermic tablets (above), the lactate formulation of eucaine was less irritating to patients than was the hydrochlorate one. (Copyright © the American Society of Anesthesiologists’ Wood Library-Museum of Anesthesiology.)

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George S. Bause, M.D., M.P.H., Honorary Curator and Laureate of the History of Anesthesia, Wood Library-Museum of Anesthesiology, Schaumburg, Illinois, and Clinical Associate Professor, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio. UJYC@aol.com.