A historical arsenic-containing drug used in the early 1900s to treat syphilis before antibiotics were discovered.
From German Arsenobenzol, combining arsenic with phenol. Created by Paul Ehrlich in 1910; the name reflects its chemical components.
Arsphenamine represents medicine's darkest and brightest moment—while arsenic compounds are poisons, this drug saved hundreds of thousands of syphilis patients and launched the concept of 'magic bullets' (targeted medicine) that defined modern pharmaceuticals.
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