1937-1941

Tracy Putnam and Houston Merritt, working at Harvard neurology unit at Boston City Hospital, publish seven papers on anticonvulsants, reporting that, in contrast to bromides and phenobarbital, the sedative and anticonvulsant effects could be separated; In third paper, they report on beneficial effects of phenytoin (Dilantin), which controlled epileptic seizures without the sedative effects of phenobarbital (Rowland, 5-7).