Health Sciences · Temerty Faculty of Medicine
A small (6.4 cm tall) glass vial contains an amber/ brown deposit adhering mainly to one facet of an interior wall. The phial has a ground glass lid that has been wrapped in clear tape. There is an off-white paper label on the vial that is marked with purple and black text. A fabric string is tied around the neck of the vial.
Accession Number: 2026.med.65
Alternative Name:
Primary Materials: Glass
Printed on the label in purple type: “250.Mgm.// HEPARIN//Lot.No.10.//Potency 1 to 50.// 1 mgm. Contains 50// Howell Cats Units.”
Written in black ink on top left of label: “Feb// 1940”
Dimensions (cm): Height = 6.4, Width = 1.0, Length = 1.9
Heparin is a blood anticoagulant. It increases the activity of antithrombin, a protein produced by the liver that regulates blood clotting. It is a biological medicine, meaning that it is derived from animal tissues.
This heparin sample was likely of insufficient purity to be used clinically.
Contents have evaporated leaving a brown deposit that adheres to the glass walls.
Associated Instruments:
Hynson, Westcott & Dunning, inc. Baltimore, Maryland, USA
Date of Manufacture: 1940
Provenance:
Christine M. Ball and Peter J. Featherstone (2025) “The History of Heparin.” Anaesthesia and Intensive Care. 53,1: 3–5.
Emil Maro Schleicher (1946) “Miliary Tuberculosis of the Bone Marrow.” American Review of Tuberculosis, 53(2), pp. 115–121
Hynson, Wescott & Dunning became the first commercial manufacturer of heparin when it began production in the early 1920s using dog liver. The heparin was relatively impure and could only be used in vitro. Techniques for purifying and manufacturing a heparin extract suitable for clinical use were developed in Toronto and Stockholm. Successful clinical trials began in the mid 1930s.
A medical article from 1946 describes the in vitro use of heparin produced by Hynson, Wescott & Dunning as part of the histological preparation of bone marrow affected by miliary tuberculosis. This heparin is described as derived from dog liver (Schleicher 1946, 117). It seems likely that Hynson, Wescott & Dunning had not, at least by that point, adopted recent techniques for purifying and producing clinically usable heparin.