On Wed, 08 Dec 1999, Harvey Newstrom wrote:
> James Rogers wrote:
> > Ritalin is not amphetamine, and I don't think anyone was asking if it was.
>
> Actually, the post I was answering *was* asking if Ritalin was "identical"
> to an old drug called Ritalina which was amphetamine.
>
> Why not just look up the original post on the archives to see what it asked?
I did. Here it is:
Amphetamines (with an "s") commonly refers to the entire class of amphetamine-like drugs, of which "Ritalin" is one. The quote did not say that "Ritalina" contained amphetamine (the chemical). Therefore, it is plausible that "Ritalin" and "Ritalina" are in fact identical as both appear to contain amphetamines (the class).
This mostly a confusion resulting from a class and an instance having the same name. A reference to amphetamine, as opposed to an amphetamine (member of the set), would presumably have been written without the "s".
In any case, I don't see what the fuss is over.
-James Rogers
jamesr@best.com