RT Journal
T1 THe fate of salicylates in the body
JF Journal of the American Medical Association
JO Journal of the American Medical Association
YR 1919
FD October 25
VO 73
IS 17
SP 1289
OP 1289
DO 10.1001/jama.1919.02610430037016
UL http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jama.1919.02610430037016
AB One of the fundamental requisites in the rational, as contrasted with the purely empiric, use of drugs is a knowledge of precisely what happens to them in the organism, as well as of what pharmacologic effects they exert. In the long run, the influence of a potent substance may depend not only on its immediate manifestations but also on delayed reactions due to accumulations of an active compound. Some foreign substances are very promptly excreted; others tend to be stored to a greater or less extent, so that they can manifest cumulative effects; still others are in some measure destroyed within the organism. Scientific therapy must be based on a knowledge of the fate of the drugs that it employs.The older literature on the salicylates, one of the most widely used groups of therapeutic agents, gives the impression that the salicyl radical leaves the body virtually unchanged.3 According