After Secretary's Report to Senate, Massengill Defends Elixir

The day after the Secretary of Agriculture, Henry A. Wallace, gave his report to the Senate on the Elixir Sulfanilamide deaths, Dr. Massengill claimed that the casualties attributed to his product were being exploited by the FDA in an effort to widen its powers [1,2]. On Saturday, November 27, both the Bristol Herald Courier and the Bristol News Bulletin printed Massengill's statement in full—a scattershot and head-spinning response that defended, among several things, the "elixir" label, the use of diethylene glycol, the "unpredictable effect" of his product, and his support of more stringent food and drug regulation.

I have never, directly or indirectly, opposed any proposed Food and Drug law. I never spoke to Hon. Carroll Reece, my congressman, about the one now pending, nor, to my knowledge, did any of my friends do so.[*] This proposed bill is not supposed to be aimed to any great extent at manufacturers of drugs for prescription use, but, chiefly, at the advertising of drugs sold to the public. It is to my personal interest that the laws governing the manufacture of drugs be made stringent. I has been evident from the first interview given out by the Food and Drug Administration that they hoped to use this deplorable occurrence to stampede Congress into giving them power they had, heretofore, refused.

The preparation we marketed was just as properly labeled "elixir" as many others of this class on the market and to which no objection has, heretofore, been made. There is no requirement that an "elixir" contain alcohol. The current National Formulary, a government standard, and one of the authorities under which we work, contains two formulas that do not contain alcohol as a part of the menstrum. One of them does not even contain aromatics.

The Elixir Sulfanilamide was not rushed on the market by us before it was tested. I am not defending the preparation, but the several hundred patients who took it with good result is evidence of the unpredictable effect. We had precedent for using a glycol as a solvent. We used the diethylene glycol, which is much less toxic than the ethylene glycol which is used as an anti-freeze mixture. The American Medication Association approved and published in their New and Nonofficial Remedies two formulas for intramuscular injection which contained ethylene glycol as the solvent. The doses recommended are 1-2 teaspoonful.

I am heartily in favor of the passage of the Food and Drug Act now pending in Congress.

One week later, the Sullivan-Johnson County Medical Society, representing 2 East Tennessee counties (which included the city of Bristol), adopted a resolution expressing its "sincere confidence in the integrity of Dr. S. E. Massengill and the products of The S. E. Massengill Company" [3]. The resolution stressed that Massengill's products were only supplied to the professions and not advertised to the "laity." The members of the medical society, which included Dr. Massengill, "deeply regret[ted] the unfortunate occurrence and the unfavorable publicity to which the S. E. Massengill Company has recently been subjected." The sympathetic paper concluded its front page coverage of the medical society's endorsement with the sentence, "Seventy-three 'known' deaths have been attributed to the preparation," placing "known" in quotation marks.

* Likely refers to Senate bill 5-1937, which was foundering in the House in the fall of 1937.

1. Massengill avers false statements made about elixir. Bristol Herald Courier. November 27, 1937; p 1.

2. Dr. Massengill in defense of sulfanilamide. Bristol News Bulletin. November 27, 1937; p 7 col 1.

3. Massengill and firm endorsed by doctors. Bristol Herald Courier. November 2, 1937; p 1.