SIR, —In your issue of January 26, Mr. A. Charles Buck
objects to Mr. Victor Gordon's comparing aspirin BP and Aspro with Disprin. He states that soluble aspirin is 'more readily absorbed and affords better gastric toleration' than the other two.
This claim is most misleading and should not go unremarked. While calcium aspirin is more readily soluble, and while possibly it might be less irritating than aspirin BP, it has been shown by various authorities to be a gastric irritant serious enough to cause occult bleeding. Lange, H. F., (Gastro- Enterology 33.700 of 1957) and Alvarez, A. F., and Summerskill, W. H. J., (Lancet of November 1, 1958) both agree that soluble aspirin causes bleed- ing in the gut, the latter stating 'there was no evi- dence that soluble aspirin reduced the risk of major bleeding.' Furthermore, in this study, Alvarez and Summerskill also showed that both' soluble and non- soluble aspirin caused hitmatemesis, while the non- salicylate, and non-advertised analgesic Panadol (which can be bought over the counter of any chemist's shop in Britain), did not.
In view of the foregoing evidence, I cannot help feeling that Mr. Buck's letter is a prize specimen of the advertising technique described by Mr. Cop- land in his article as 'not what is literally said, but what is implied.
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