Page 15 - Pharmacy History 37 Nov 2009

A common misconception
Geoff Miller
For about 150 years pharmacists, householders and military surgeons have believed that the everyday antiseptics Condy’s Crystals and Condy’s Fluid, were really permanganate of potash.
I appreciate that this is not a mind blowing discovery as this product is now a rarity on pharmacy shelves.
I recall it was used to sterilise water for poultry or sterilising soldier’s
feet before they used the communal showers. A solution was also used pre-operatively to sterilise the skin especially in military surgery as can be seen by this testimonial.
Whilst browsing through old editions of the Australasian Journal of Pharmacy
(AJP) around the time of the First World War, this rather prominent advertisement appears frequently.
The inventors of these two products first applied to have the two names patented in 1850 and they threatened legal action against any infringements of their rights.
But why advertise internationally to claim that Condy’s Fluid and Condy’s Crystals DO NOT contain
permanganate of potash? (Obviously the market must have been substantial as well as profitable!)
Condy and Mitchell were quite correct in their claim that the products did NOT contain POTASSIUM permanganate, but the fluid
contained SODIUM permanaganate while the crystals had CALCIUM permanagante.
According to Martindale The Extra Pharmacopoeia 18th Edition 1924, another salt, zinc peranganate, was used to treat gonorrhoea. This was administered as bougie or by injection.
The proprietors of the names Condy’s Fluid and Condy’s Crystals were serious about protecting their rights and actually took action against anyone selling substitutes for their products.
Notices were published in the Chemist and Druggist of Australia in 1894 and also in the AJP in 1914. One of these advertisements actually stated that ‘twenty nine injunctions with damages and costs had recently been obtained in the courts ‘.
Even in those far off days it appears as though generic substitution was a problem.
volume 5 no 37 NOVEMBER 2009
Pharmacy History Australia 15