Methamphetamine for Hitler’s Germany: 1937 to 1945

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Methamphetamine for Hitler’s Germany: 1937 to 1945 By Ray J. Defalque, MD Professor, Emeritus Department of Anesthesiology University of Alabama at Birmingham and Amos J. Wright, MLS Associate Professor Department of Anesthesiology University of Alabama at Birmingham This article has been peer reviewed for publication in the April 2011 issue of the Bulletin of Anesthesia History. Introduction Methamphetamine, developed in Berlin in 1937-38, was widely used by the German civilians and armed forces personnel until 1945 despite the authorities’ efforts to curb its abuse. Neither physicians nor researchers could agree on its physical or mental effects or on its medical indications. Some German authors (1-3) suggested after the war that the drug had been encouraged by the Nazi regime to help create a “superman” hero. However, we found no grounds for that claim; in fact, the Health “Leader” and the military’s medical authorities repeatedly tried to curtail its use. We hope this article dispels many legends that have grown up around the Nazis and “speed.” The Discovery of Methamphetamine Working on the formula of ephedrine discovered in 1887, the Japanese A. Ogata (4) in 1919 synthesized methyl-amphetamine by replacing ephedrine’s OH radical by a CH3 chain. German and Swiss chemists (5) in the 1920s showed some interest in the compound, but only from a chemical point of view. In 1937, Fritz Hauschild (1908- 1974), a young physician and chemist with the firm Temmler in Berlin, rediscovered methamphetamine, while synthesizing over 50 ephedrine derivatives to study their pharmacological actions. Experimenting on small mammals and on himself and his co-workers, he found that methamphetamine was more potent than ephedrine as a stimulant of the central nervous and cardiovascular systems. It also was active when taken orally. In rodents, cats and rabbits it caused hyperactivity and excitement and reversed barbiturate sleep. In men it stimulated mental activity, caused euphoria, and hindered fatigue. Central nervous-active doses only caused minimum cardiovascular stimulation. Hauschild immediately reported his findings at two medical meetings and in four medical journals in 1938.(6,7) Gener-

ally ignored is the fact that scientists in Copenhagen in the late 1930s had made the same discovery, as acknowledged by Hauschild in one of his articles.(7) The firm Temmler, anxious to exploit Hauschild’s discovery before the entry of Benzedrine (amphetamine) on the German market, applied for a patent in early 1937 and it was granted on October 31, 1937. (Reich Patent No 767-186). In March, 1938, Temmler released methyl-amphetamine hydrochloride commercially under the trade name of Pervitin in 3mg tablets and 15mg ampules. The drug was inexpensive and available without prescription. Pervitin in Civilian Practice Pervitin tablets became immediately popular with tired night workers (nurses, phone operators, watchmen) and with young people seeking cocaine-like euphoria and heightened sexual pleasure.(1,8) Temmler also launched an intensive advertising campaign among German physicians, flooding their offices with samples and literature quoting amphetamine’s success in the U.S. and offering them financial incentives to publish their findings. By the end of 1939, over 100 clinical studies, most of them laudatory, had been published. All were uncontrolled trials of little scientific value. They claimed successes in a variety of conditions: a) Surgery: cure of surgical and anesthetic collapse; quicker recovery from anesthesia; enhanced convalescence; well-being and euphoria in inoperable cancer patients. The influential surgeons of Leipzig University were especially enthusiastic about the drug. b) Medicine: treatment of asthma and hay fever; reversal of barbiturate coma; weaning of morphine and alcohol addicts; weight gain in debilitated patients.

c) Obstetrics: infant resuscitation. d) Neurology: migraine and other headaches; apathy; post-encephalopathic Pakinson’s syndrome. e) Psychiatrists reported the best successes in schizophrenia; depressions; phobias, anxiety and sexual deficiencies. There were, however, a few reports of addiction and chronic abuse with personality changes or collapse. Pervitin was more critically studied at the Dortmund Institute of Work Physiology on alert and tired volunteers.(9,10) The results were inconsistent or conflicting but the investigators agreed that Pervitin did not increase the metabolism but simply induced the subjects to produce more work. They warned against the danger of continuing working over the physiological limits. The Dortmund research was closely watched by another work physiologist, Dr. Otto F. Ranke (1899-1959) in Berlin, as mentioned below. Dr. Leonardo Conti (1900-1945) and Pervitin The reports of chronic abuse and addiction started to raise some concern by the end of 1939.(11) In an influential medical journal (12) F. Haeffner, a renowned pharmacologist, warned against the use of stimulants and recommended government control. Some academic psychiatric departments and the Berlin criminal police reported a disturbing increase in the number of Pervitin addicts. Dr. Leonardo Conti, the Reich Health Leader, a physician obsessed with the health of the German “Volk” (community), was informed of these problems, and on November 11, 1939, ordered Pervitin to be sold only with a doctor’s prescription. This order, however, did not Continued on Page 22

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Germany. . . Continued from Page 21 curb the abuse; physicians now prescribed Pervitin for various vague or trivial indications. In a March 1940 speech to the Nazi Medical Association in Berlin, Conti warned his colleagues that their laxity seriously threatened the “Volk’s” health. In early 1941, German newspapers quoted reports in the British press and from the BBC attributing the brilliant German military successes to the use of stimulants and claiming that German pilots captured in England carried Pervitin. There were stories of German soldiers taking Pervitin before visiting French brothels where the girls used the “love pill” Maxiton (amphetamine). In the spring of 1941, the Berlin police uncovered a large black market of Pervitin, including deliveries to a popular brothel. At Conti’s prompting, Ernst Speer (1889-1964), a noted psychiatrist and director of the Lindau Institute of Psychiatry, reviewed the literature on, and his experience with, Pervitin. He published his conclusions in the January 1941 issue of a prominent medical journal.(13) He had found no sound medical indications for the drug, not even in psychiatry, and knew of numerous cases of true addiction or chronic abuse. For Speer, the drug’s only indication was life-threatening exhaustion, as in military drivers or motorcycle riders. A few physicians objected to Speer’s conclusions and felt that he exaggerated the drug’s dangers and ignored some sound indications. Conti, however, accepted Speer’s recommendations and in mid-June 1941 asked the Interior Minister to place Pervitin under the “Opium Law” (the German equivalent of regulations for controlled substances). The decree, published on July 1, 1941, threatened severe penalties but exempted the research institutions, and, implicitly, the armed forces. Conti’s decision was clearly detailed by his assistants Kaerber (14) and Gruenwald (15) who insisted that the drug should never be prescribed for healthy subjects and that other, safer drugs were available for true medical indications. The abuse of Pervitin by civilians markedly decreased after 1941 because of the new law, but also because of competition with the military and difficulties in production and distribution caused by the Allied bombings. However, physicians still occasionally prescribed it for depression, narcolepsy, apathy and Parkinson’s syndrome. Towards the end of the war, large amounts of Pervitin were distributed to the armament workers to increase their output during the night shifts.(2)

Pervitin in the Armed Forces (Wehrmacht) 1. Army (Heer)(2,3,16-18) As the Army, especially its motorized divisions, expanded after 1935, the German drug companies saw a large potential market for their stimulants. In October 1938, Boehringer and Knoll, and in early 1939, Temmler, recommended their stimulants Benzedrine and Pervitin respectively, to General Dr A. Waldman, the Army’s Medical Inspector (the highest medical officer). Up to May 1939, Dr Waldman had refused to introduce stimulants in the service, but he, however, asked Dr O. Ranke to study the matter. In May 1937, Ranke had become chairman of the Department of Physiology at the Berlin Medico-Military Academy, the Army’s medical school and research center. An aggressive scientist interested in work physiology, Ranke had read Hauschild’s papers and was in close contact with his colleagues at the Dortmund Institute of Work Physiology. In the last week of September 1938, he started studying Pervitin’s effects on the physical and mental activity of sleep-deprived cadets. He could not complete his experiments as some of his subjects developed cardiac arrhythmias or abused the drug to “cram” for their examinations. He resumed his experiments in April and May 1939 testing Pervitin, Benzedrine and caffeine against a control (dextrose) and adding a psychiatrist to test the cadets’ mental and motor skills. Because of side-effects (attributed to overdose) and again because of abuse by the “cramming” students, Ranke again did not finish his study. He, however, reached some conclusions that he sent to the Medical Inspector: 1. As stimulants, Pervitin and Benzedrine were equipotent but superior to caffeine. 2. Pervitin in 3-6 mg doses maintained alertness and good mental and motor skills for up to eight hours. 3. It could cause physical collapse if used over 24-36 hours. Its use should always be followed by a long restorative sleep. 4. It should always be given under medical supervision. 5. It would not reverse alcohol intoxication.

From May through August 1939, i.e., immediately before the onset of the Polish campaign (September 1, 1939), Ranke distributed large amounts of Pervitin to the medical officers of motorized units to test it against fatigue. In October 1939 at Dr Waldman’s request, he interviewed the physicians who had been in Poland. They had taken Pervitin themselves or given it to officers and soldiers exhausted by the long and rapid advances. All were enthusiastic: Pervitin had kept them alert, clear-thinking and proficient and it had saved many lives by preventing accidents with tired drivers and motorcycle riders. Visiting the Western front the same month, Ranke found that many overworked junior officers carried Pervitin in their briefcases, using it frequently and with excellent results. Ranke reported his findings to the Inspector while deploring the lack of good control studies, repeating his previous guidelines and warning of the danger of addiction and chronic abuse. In fact, in November 1939, Ranke wrote to the Health Leader Conti recommending that Pervitin become a controlled substance. In early 1940, Inspector Waldman sent Dr Krueger, an assistant of Ranke’s at the Medico-Military Academy, to interview the medical officers who had served in Poland to obtain another, unbiased opinion. In his April 1940 report, Krueger confirmed the enthusiasm for Pervitin but noted that some interviewees had misgivings about its abuse. The same month Ranke recommended that the Army adopt Pervitin, provided administration was done by a medical officer and only in exceptional cases of life-threatening exhaustion. Informed of these reports (possibly by Ranke himself), the firm Temmler then resubmitted its request for the adoption of Pervitin into the service. In late April 1940, General Waldman issued a directive, written with Ranke’s help, accepting the drug in the Army, provided it be used as recommended by Ranke. Tubes of 30 tablets of 3 mg were added to the units’ medical packs. Waldman’s directive was complemented by an ordinance of General v. Brauchitsch, the Army’s Commander in Chief, extolling Pervitin as a boon for fighting Germany. Pervitin was thus officially available during the Western campaign of May-June 1940. From April through December 1940, the military medical depots dispensed 30 million Pervitin tablets. Ranke was attached to General v. Kleist’s Army Corps, which included many motorized divisions, during its rapid advances across France of May 1940. Reviewing the use of Pervitin

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after the armistice in June-July 1940, Ranke found that large amounts of the drug had been distributed to the troops, sometimes for 24 to 36 hour periods by the units’ physicians at the urging of their commanding officers. Again Pervitin was hailed as saving the life of many exhausted men. Ranke also discovered that some officers had taken it as an aid in their drinking binges or to treat hangovers. Some senior officers while on Pervitin had suffered myocardial infarcts (occasionally fatal) while swimming or during drinking bouts. In his post-campaign report Ranke again deplored the lack of controlled studies and insisted on his previous guidelines. In February and September 1941, General Dr S. Handloser (1885-1954), the new Medical Inspector, issued two directives on the use of stimulants in the Army, insisting on Ranke’s strict guidelines. The ordinances were probably prompted by letters from Dr Conti complaining of Pervitin abuse in the service (see below). These directives may have curtailed the abuse of Pervitin as the medical depots only dispensed 10 million tablets in 1941. The military use of Pervitin after 1942 is poorly documented as most of the records after that date were lost.(16,17) But there is evidence that the drug continued to be widely used. The Deutsche Militaerarzt, the official journal of the military physicians, in 1942 and 1943 published letters from medical officers reporting that they had been ordered by their commanding officers to distribute the drug to the troops. The memoirs of senior commanders and soldiers statements to newspapers after the war suggest a large use of Pervitin by the soldiers to help them escape the enemy encirclements during the harsh Russian winters. The pharmaceutical companies continued to encourage the Army’s use of Pervitin. The medical Inspector denied the requests of two firms to add Pervitin to their products such as Energetika (dextrose tablets) and the firm Sarotti’s Moka Glycolade (cocoa, caffeine and dextrose). In 1942-3, the firm Temmler recommended its Pervitin to the Army for the management of surgical shock and to produce shorter anesthesia recovery time. Temmler also released a morphine-Pervitin preparation (morphine 20 mg, Pervitin 7.5 mg) to prevent morphine’s somnolence and cardiovascular depression during the protracted evacuations of the wounded in the cold Russian winters and thus avoid frostbites. Experiments at the Berlin Medicomilitary Academy in 1944 also suggested that Pervitin enhanced morphine’s anal-

gesic action. The Army also occasionally used Pervitin on its exhausted horses in the Soviet Union. Conti and the Wehrmacht: A Power Struggle Between January 1940 and December 1941, Dr Conti sent at least four letters to the Inspectors Waldman and Handloser to complain of Pervitin abuse in the Army; he saw it as a threat to Germany’s health after the soldiers’ demobilization at the end of the war. In their delayed answers, the Inspectors refuted these accusations and claimed that the Army strictly followed Ranke’s and Speer’s recommendations. The correspondence prompted General Handloser’s two directive mentioned above. These exchanges probably were a power struggle between a Nazi agency and the fiercely independent armed services. 2. Pervitin in the Air Force (Luftwaffe)(19) The Luftwaffe’s medical authorities rejected Pervitin because of its danger of pilots’ hypoxia and hyperventilation and the need for long restorative sleep after its use. Pilots on long flights used hot coffee or tea and the “Fliegers Chocolate” (flyers’ candy bar, Sho-Ka-Kola, a mixture of cocoa, dextrose, caffeine and extract of kola nut) made by the firm Hildebrand. However, Pervitin tablets were included in the bail-out kits of flyers shot over the sea or behind enemy lines. Towards the end of the war, faced with exhausted, overworked fighter pilots, the Luftwaffe’s medical authorities held several conferences to discuss the advantages of Pervitin over caffeine but reached no decision. 3. Pervitin in the Navy (Kriegsmarine)(20-22) A directive issued by the Navy’s chief medical officer in early 1941 introduced Pervitin in his service, with the same guidelines as in the Army. Ships’ pharmacies stored Pervitin tablets to be administered by a physician only in extreme cases of exhaustion. In submarines, which rarely had a doctor aboard, Pervitin was controlled by the captain. In all ships the use of the drug had to be recorded in the medical log. However, many ship captains distributed Pervitin during long, tiring missions, such as long convoy battles. During the “Channel Dash” of February 11-13, 1942, when the cruiser “Prinz Eugen” and her sister ships escaped from their French port of Brest to return to their Baltic bases, the sailors received Pervitin to maintain their seven hour “high alert” watches. The crews

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of the small “Schnell Boote” (small,fast torpedo boats) who were on 12 hour duty also received Pervitin. At the end of the war, tablets containing Pervitin, cocaine and hydro- or oxycodone were tested on the crews of the “one-man torpedoes” during trials in the frigid Baltic Sea. The large amounts of Pervitin found in the Kriegsmarine’s medical depots after the war suggest an intensive use of the drug. D. Pervitin in the S.S. Forces(1,2,22,23) Tablets containing Pervitin, cocaine and oxycodone were provided to Colonel O. Skorzeny’s S.S. commandos trying to capture Tito in the rugged Serbian mountains during the winter of 1944-45. S.S. physicians also tested Pervitin on concentration camp inmates: a) Hunger experiments in Buchenwald and Matthausen. b) Marches of 60 miles with a heavy backpack after a three hour sleep in Sachsenhausen. c) In Dachau in May 1942, the infamous Dr Raschner administered Pervitin to his victims to test their resistance to low atmospheric pressure (68 mm Hg). Notorious German Pervitin Addicts in World War II 1. Heinrich Boell (1917-1985). The prolific novelist, winner of several German literary awards and of the 1972 Nobel prize for literature, became addicted to Pervitin while a soldier in Poland in 1932, an addiction which persisted after the war. 2. Ernst Udet (1896-1941). An air ace in the Red Baron’s squadron, Udet after World War I became a flamboyant stunt pilot, movie star, playboy and popular idol. Commissioned general in the Luftwaffe in 1935 he directed the department of research and development. He introduced the dive bombers, including the famous Stuka, in his service after visiting the Curtis plants in the U.S. Heavily addicted to Pervitin and alcohol, he became depressed in the fall of 1941 after his chief Goering blamed him for the Luftwaffe’s defeats and shot himself in November 1941. 3. Adolf Hitler (1889-1945). L.L. Heston, an American academic psychiatrist, concluded, without good evidence, that Hitler had become addicted to Pervitin. This addiction would have explained his physical and mental deterioration at the Continued on Page 24

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Germany. . . Continued from Page 23 end of his life.(24) E.G. Schenck, a German physician who had met Hitler and became an expert on his health,(25) rejected Heston’s suggestion and felt that Pervitin, on rare occasions, had been added to the multiple vitamins prescribed for the Fuehrer, probably without his knowledge or even that of his physician Morell. Pervitin Outside of Germany during World War II Small clinical trials of Pervitin were carried out on Swiss, Swedish and Italian military personnel from 1938 to the early 1940s. Although Pervitin was known in the U.S. at the time it was never used by the military.(26) Benzedrine, of course, was extensively used in the U.S. and British armed forces during the war. Conclusions Pervitin was widely used in Germany, by civilians until 1941 and by the Wehrmacht from 1938 to 1945, mainly as a stimulant to prevent or treat fatigue. Its medical indications were never clearly defined and it was rarely used clinically after 1941. Studies of its mental and physical action gave inconclusive or inconsistent results. Its potential for abuse and addiction was recognized but thought to be rare and to occur only in subjects with personality disorders. Some German writers after the war (1-3) claimed that the use of Pervitin had been encouraged by the government to create a Nazi “superman.” Our extensive review of the literature, however, does not support this view. On the contrary, the over-zealous Health Leader Conti consistently attempted to curtail the use of Pervitin and other stimulants. The abuse of Pervitin in the Wehrmacht resulted from efforts to prevent or treat physical and mental fatigue during exhausting battles and thus save soldiers’ lives. Summary Methamphetamine was synthesized in Germany in 1937 and commercially released in 1938. It became a popular stimulant for tired night workers and a recreational drug for young people until mid1941 when it became a controlled substance. It was abused by the armed forces during World War II when it was distributed by some commanding officers (occasionally over the objections of the units’ physicians) to prevent or treat the fatigue of exhausted troops and thus allow them to survive, despite the strict restrictions issued by the Army Inspectorate. There is no evidence

for the claim that the use of Pervitin was encouraged by the Nazi government to create a “superman.” In fact the Health Leader L. Conti strongly discouraged its use. Cast of Characters 1. The firm Temmler was founded in 1937. Its Berlin plant was bombed in 194344 and occupied by the Russians in May, 1945. It was re-established in West-Berlin then moved to Marburg. It is now one of the major German drug companies with seven plants in Germany, Switzerland and Ireland. Temmler stopped the production of Pervitin in May 1988 and renounced its patent in December of the same year for undisclosed reasons. 2. Fritz Hauschild (1908-1974). He studied in Munich, Berlin and Goettingen, obtaining a PhD in Chemistry in 1932 and his medical diploma in 1934. He joined the firm Temmler in early 1937, and in 1939 became professor of pharmacology at the Berlin Faculty of Medicine. He left the firm Temmler in 1941 and taught at the Universities of Heidelberg and Frankfurt/ Main. He was drafted in the Army in February 1943 and served on the Eastern front as a medical officer until May 1945. In June 1946, he returned to East-Germany and became a dedicated member of the Communist party. Made chairman of the Department of Pharmacology at the Karl Marx University in Leipzig in October 1947, he taught, did research and published a highly regarded textbook of pharmacology and toxicology. He was a member of various committees and a scientific adviser to the East-German government which often praised him and decorated him twice despite his harsh criticism of the Party’s research policies. He died from cancer in Leipzig in 1974.(27) 3. Leonardo Conti (1900-1945). Born in Lugano (Switzerland) from an Italian father and a German mother (a midwife), Conti moved to Germany and became naturalized in 1915. He received his medical diploma in 1925 after studying in Berlin and Erlangen. A zealous Nazi, he chaired various medical groups and in early 1939 became “Reich Health Fuehrer,” the regime’s highest medical authority. Put on trial by the US Army in 1945 for his role in the euthanasia program and the Buchenwald typhus human experiments, he hanged himself in his cell in Nuremberg on October 6, 1945. 4. Siegfried Handloser (1885-1954). General Dr Handloser became the Army Medical Inspector (chief medical officer) in January 1941 shortly after the death of his predecessor Waldman. In June 1942,

Hitler made him Chief Medical Officer of all the German armed forces (Wehrmacht), including the S.S. medical service. He was tried in Nuremberg in December 1946 for condoning the S.S. human experiments and sentenced to life imprisonment. His sentence was reduced to twenty years by the U.S. High Commissioner John J. Mc Cloy in 1951. Diagnosed with terminal cancer in early 1954, he was released from prison and died in a Munich hospital in July 1954 from surgical complications. 5. Otto F. Ranke (1899-1959). Born in Munich in 1899, Ranke studied in Munich, Freiburg/Br and Heidelberg. He received his medical diploma in 1923 and a PhD degree in Physiology in 1935. A captain in the Luftwaffe in 1935, he transferred as a colonel in the Army in 1937 to chair the Department of Physiology at the Berlin Medico-Military Academy. In March, 1939, he also became professor at the Berlin Medical Faculty. He directed various Wehrmacht’s research programs during the war and in 1946 became professor of physiology at the University of Erlangen where he taught, did research and published until his November 1959, death from heart failure following a myocardial infarct. His colleagues described Ranke as a rigorous, obsessive scientist but also as intolerant, quarrelsome and bigoted.(17) References

(1) Roth KH. Leistungsmedizin : Das Beispiel Pervitin. In: Aerzte in Nazionalsocialismus. Edit F. Kudien. Koeln, Kiepenhauer & Witsch Verlag, 1985:167-184. (2) Kemper WH. Pervitin. Die end-Sieg Droge? In: Nazis on Speed. Drogen im 3. Reich Volume 1 Edit W Pieper Lohrbach (Germany) Gruene Kraft Verlag, 2002:122-133. (3) Baader G. Menschenversuch in der deutsche Wehrmacht In: Wissenschaft im Krieg. Krieg in der Wissenschaft, Edit M Tschir-merm & HW Goebel. Marburg, Eigen Verlag, 1990:258266. (4) Ogata A. Constitution of ephedrinedesoxyephedrine (In Japanese) Yakugaki Zasshi (J Jap Phamacol Soc) 1919;451:751-764. Also in Chem Abstracts 1920;14:475. (5) Emde H. Ueber Diastereometrie. I. Konfiguration des Ephedrins. Helvet Chim Acta 1929;12:365-376. (6)Hauschild F. Pharmakologische Wirkungen nach Abaenderungen am Ephedrinmolekuel. Naunyn-Schmiedeberg Arch fuer exp Pathologie Pharmakologie 1938;190:177-178. (7) Hauschild F. Tierexperimentelles ueber eine peroral wirksamend zentralanaleptische Substanz mit peripherer Kreislaufwirkung. Klin Wochenschr 1938;17:1257-1258. (8) Grunske F. Gesundheitliche Gefahren der Genuss-und Reizmitteln bei der Ermuedungsbekaempfung und Leistungssteigerung. In: Wehrmedizin. Edit S. Handloser & W. Hofman. Berlin, Springer Verlag, 1944:226-236. (9) Lehmann G, Staub H, Szakall A. Pervitin als Leistungssteigerendes Mittel. Arbeitsphysiologie

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Fisher. . . Continued from Page 20 Cornelius Fisher of Dedham, Mass, 1860-1840. Everett, MA, Massachusetts Publishing Co., 1898: 272. (4) Federal Census Index, 1860. New York City, 16th Ward, District 4, page 1. (5) New York City Coroners’ Day Book. Entry 256385, January 21, 1877. (6) Harrington TF. The Harvard Medical School: A History, Narrative, and Documentary. New York, Chicago. Lewis Publishers, 1905, vol. 3:1476. (7) Fellows of the Massachusetts Medical Society 1787-21854. Boston, J Wilson & Sons, 1855:16. (8) Fisher FW. The nature and treatment of seasickness. Boston Med Surg J 1847;38:513-518 (9) Jones RM. American doctors in Paris 18201861. J Hist Med Allied Sci 1970;25:142-157. (10) Warner JH. Against the Spirit of the System: The French Impulse in Nineteenth-Century American Medicine. Princeton, NJ, Princeton University Press, 1995. (11) Warren JC. The influence of anaesthesia

Germany. . . Continued from Page 25 1939;10:680-691. (10) Graf 0. Ueber den Einfluss von Pervitin auf einige psychische und psychomotorische Funktionen. Arbeitsphysiologie 1939;10:692-705. (11) Steinkamp P. Pervitin(methamphetamine) experiments and its use in the German Wehrmacht 1939-1945. Conference on the History of Medicine. Section Military Medicine. Heidelberg, July 15, 2004. (12) Haeffner F. Zur Pharmakologie und Praxis der Stimulanten. Klin Wochenschr 1938;17:13001311. (13) Speer E. Das Pervitinproblem. Deutsche Arbeitblatt 1941;71:46, 15-19. (14) Kaerber G. Unterstellung von Dolantin, Pervitin und Benzedrin unter der Opiumgesetz. Deutsche Aerztenblatt 1941;260-262. (15) Gruenwald (no first name). Die Loesung des Pervitins Problem. Gesundheitsfuehrung “Ziel und Weg” 1941;315-319.

Bulletin of Anesthesia History Doris K. Cope, M.D., Editor 200 Delafield Road, Suite 2070 Pittsburgh, PA 15215 U.S.A.

on the surgery in the nineteenth century. Trans Amer Surg Assoc 1897;15:18. (12) Velpeau A. De l’etherization. Union Medicale 1850;4:121-122. (13)Westminster Hospital. Operations under the influence of ether. Lancet 1847;1:78-79. (14) Medical Police and Rules of Regulations of the Boston Medical Association, with a Catalogue of the Officers and Members. Boston, J. Wilson & Sons, 1852:35. (15) Sudden death of a physician. New York Times, January 21, 1877, page 12. (16) Married. New York Times, November 17, 1855, page 8. (17) Special Notices. New York Times, February 22, 1855, page 5. (18) Phisterer F. New York in the War of the Rebellion, 1861 to 1865. Third Edition, Albany, NY, JB Lyon & Co., 1912:2913-2915. (19) Hussey GA, Todd W. History of the Ninth Regiment, NYSM, NGSNY (Eighty-Third NY Volunteers), 1845-1888. New York, JS Ogilvie, 1889:354; 562; 714. (20) Society of the War Veterans. Ninth Regiment, New York State Militia (83rd New York Vol-

unteers). Hartford, CT, Star Printing Co., 1887. (21) The Medical and Surgical History of the Civil War. Wilmington, NC, Broadfoot Publisher, 1992, vol. 10:513. (22) Another Rally of the Veterans. New York Times, April 11, 1884, page 8. (23). The Fisk murder. The testimony of the hotel doctor. New York Times, July 4, 1872. (24) Swanberg WA. The Career of an Improbable Rascal. New York, Charles Scribner & Sons, 1959:272-278

(16) Unger F. Einsatz von Pervitin im deutschen Heer im 2.Weltkrieg und dessen Vorbereitung seit 1937. Wehrmed Monatschr 1994;38:374-381. (17) Unger F. Das Institut fuer Allgemeine und Wehrphysiologie an der militaer-aerztliche Akademie in Berlin (1937-1945). Dissertation, Medizinische Hochschule, Hannover, 1991. (18) Neumann A. Arztum ist immer Kaempfertum. Duesseldorf, Droste Verlag, 2005:260-266. (19) Luft U. Wachsmittel im Flugbetrieb. In: Wehrhygiene. Edit S. Hand-loser & W. Hoffman, Berlin, Springer Verlag 1944:492-493. (20) Hartmann V. Pervitin. Vom Gebrauch und Misbrauch einer Droge in der Kriegsmarine. Wehrmed Monatschr 1994;38:137-142. (21) Noeldeke H, Hartmann V. Der Sanitaetsdienst in der deutsche U-Boot-Waffe. Hamburg, ES Mittler & Sohn Verlag, 1996:207219. (22) Noeldeke H. Einsatz von Leistungsteigererenden Medikamenten.

Einfuehrung. Erfahrungen bei Heer und Kriegsmarine. In: Nazis on Speed. Drogen im 3. Reich. Volume 1 Lohrbach (Germany), Gruene Kraft Verlag, 2002:134-142. (23) Klee E. Auschwitz, die NS-Medizin und ihre Opfer. Frankfurt/Main, S Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, 1997:225. (24) Heston LL. The Medical Case Book of Adolf Hitler. Lincoln (Nebraska) iUniverse, 2007:71-85. (25) Schenck EG. Patient Hitler. Duesseldorf, Droste Verlag, 1989:203-205, 447-449. (26) Ivy AC, Goetzl FR. D-desoxyephedrine. A review. War Med 1943;3:60-77. (27) Meyer U. Man sollte die Entwicklung nicht hemmen. Fritz Hauschild (1908-1974) und die Arzneimittelforschung in der DDR. Pharmazie 2005;60:468- 472.

Acknowedgments We deeply appreciate the great help provided by the staffs of the Countway Library of Medicine at Harvard University and the New York Public Library; by the office of New York Senator Charles Schumer; and by Jeff S. Defalque.