In recent years, medical literature has included several reports on the specificity of amidopyrine (pyramidon) in the treatment of measles.
Amidopyrine as a therapeutic agent in measles was first mentioned by Loewenthal1 in 1924. In his report he stated that amidopyrine, when administered at or before the appearance of the rash, will cause (1) reduction of temperature to normal or nearly normal within twelve hours; (2) inhibition of eruption, at times completely, almost always partially; (3) immediate euphoria; (4) clearing up of conjunctivitis, coryza and cough within a day or two.
On these studies Loewenthal concluded that "the drug acts as promptly in measles as quinine does in malaria, or the salicylates in rheumatic fever. A drug which checks the onward march of the symptoms, and particularly the development of the rash, surely has the right to be called a specific drug."
Independent of Loewenthal's observations and discovery of