Saccharin, an artificial sugar prepared from coal-tar, first introduced in 1887 by its discoverer Dr. Constantin Fahlberg of Salbke (Germany). Its sweetening properties are enormous. It is not a fermentable sugar, and is in common use in the treatment of disease, as diabetes, for instance; and in many cases in which the palate craves for sweets, but in which ordinary sugar cannot be permitted without danger. A French Commission reported in 1888, that its use in food would seriously affect the digestive functions, and recommended the government to prohibit its employment in alimentary substances. The discoverer and many eminent chemists deny that saccharin is injurious to the human system.
Entry from Everybody's Cyclopedia,
1912.