Health Sciences · Hospital for Sick Children
A small (~7 cm wide), unopened carton contains five 1.7 cc ampoules of Nikethamide (nicotinic acid diethylamide). The labelling of the carton is tan and orange/ brown with dark lettering. It is wrapped in clear cellophane, which is torn in several places.
Accession Number: 2025.sk.70
Nikethamide, nicotinic acid diethylamide, pyridine-β-carbonic acid diethylamide.
Primary Materials: Glass, Nicotinic acid diethylamide,
Markings:
Box: Height = 6, Width = 6.7, Length = 2.
Coramine (an early trade name for nicotinic acid diethylamide,) is an analeptic medicine, meaning that it is used to stimulate the central nervous system, typically the respiratory system. Within the context of anesthesiology, Coramine was used, beginning in the 1920s, to counteract respiratory depression. This was once a relatively prevalent and potentially deadly side effect of general anesthesia in which inadequate respiration leads to hypoxia. Coramine was replaced by a newer generation of analeptic drugs beginning in the 1960s (see Ball and Featherstone 2018, 5).
The carton is unopened and in good condition.
Associated Instruments:
CIBA AG. (Gesellschaft fur Chemische Industrie Basel) Basel, Switzerland.
Date of Manufacture: 1920s to mid-20th c.
Provenance:
Edwin Stanton Faust. (1925) “On Pyridine-β-carbonic acid diethylamide and its use as an analeptic.” The Lancet (British Edition) 205, 5313: 1336–39.
G. Norman Myers (1940) “An Experimental Investigation on the Action of Coramine.” Epidemiology and Infection 40, 4: 474–500.
C. M. Ball, and P. J Featherstone (2018). “Coramine and Other Analeptics.” Anaesthesia and Intensive Care 46, 1: 3–5.
Coramine was introduced in the 1920s following a search for an effective and water soluble alternative to the earliest analeptic drugs (camphor, strychnine, and adrenaline). It was first manufactured by the Swiss Gesellschaft für Chemische Industrie Basel (“Society of Chemical Industry in Basel”), later named CIBA AG.
Various trade names were introduced following the expiration of the CIBA patent in 1939.