Children, Cry Again

In 1,795 newspapers last week, Sterling Drug, Inc. advertised that the emetic which spoiled some March and April batches of Fletcher's Castoria (TIME. May 17) had at last been found. Manufacture was again under way. The vomitable turned out to be chemicals called anthro-quinones, so hard to find that 20 Castoria chemists were seven weeks at it.

It might never have happened except for the sugar shortage. In a test last summer, the makers found that Castoria could be made with 20% less sugar than normally. But when they started cutting, last March, they used water" that was a little different from the water used in the tests. Results: during the 45-day aging period when the laxative material (extract of senna) normally becomes oxidized to produce some substances called oxyquinones, the material lost oxygen instead, thereby developed the anthroquinones. Looking back on it now, the makers realize that the Castoria could have been fixed up by heating, longer aging, or introducing oxygen.

To avoid any repetition, future batches will contain the usual amount of sugar, war or no war. A few spoonfuls of each batch will be tried on animals. To make sure that no customer gets any of the old, bad batches, the new Castoria package will be distinguished by a green band.

A survey has shown that seven out of ten U.S. mothers with small children know of Castoria's difficulties, that three-quarters of the women who know about it have the story straight. Eighty-five per cent of all those questioned are perfectly willing to use Castoria when it comes on the market again, about Sept. 15.

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