Atlanta Daily World

In a discussion of "wonder" drugs, chances are the average person thinks of the brilliant antibiotic and sulfa drugs, and of a handful of other medicines like the new vaccine for polio. Probably the least likely to be mentioned is the most widely used drug in the world, which has also been called the "most useful drug ever found."

It is known to the medical and pharmaceutical professions as acetylsalicylic acid. The public knows it as aspirin. To many doctors it is the original "wonder" drug because, they say, aspirin is probably the safest and most effective pain-killer ever found. And it has hundreds of medical uses.

Aspirin's effectiveness in relieving headache pain is a fact familiar to people throughout the world. Dentists will often suggest a couple of aspirin tablets after a difficult extraction. Similarly, most people know that aspirin swiftly reduces fever caused by numerous ailments.

Not so familiar, however, is aspirin's usefulness as a pain-killer in such serious conditions as rheumatoid arthritis. Arthritics call it "the greatest blessing we have." Scientists studying rheumatic fever recently reported to the American Heart Association that aspirin, by and large, is as effective as the "miracle drugs" ACTH and cortisone.

Treating patients with various influenza-like infections, U.S. Air Force doctors at Chanute Field, Ill., found that aspirin reduced fever much quicker than Terramycin and erythromycin. They further stated that aspirin is not only just as effective, and much less expensive, but that continued use of antibiotics to treat flu, colds, etc., might result in building up immunities in the body.

This year marks aspirin's 100th birthday. The chemical gathered dust on a laboratory shelf until 1899, however, when The Bayer Company accidentally discovered it relieved headaches while testing it on an arthritis sufferer.