Anemia therapy. Review of various liver and stomach fractions and iron salts.

It has been eighteen years since the announcement of Minot and Murphy 1 of the spectacular beneficial effect of raw liver therapy on patients having addisonian pernicious anemia. In that eighteen years there have been developed many extracts of liver and these extracts have contributed immeasurably to the ease and effectiveness of primary anemia therapy. However, therapy has been somewhat complicated by the multitude of products made available. It has been my experience that this multiplicity of liver extracts leads to confusion in the choice of an extract to prescribe. This confusion exists both in regard to high and low potency extracts and in regard to oral and intramuscular methods of administration. A rapid review of the development of liver therapy from its inception following the work of Minot and Murphy through the development of stomach tissue extracts by Sturgis and Isaacs 2 in 1929 to the present time will