Barbital (as known in the United States) or barbitone (as known elsewhere), marketed under the brand names Veronal for the pure acid and Medinal for the sodium salt, was the first commercially available barbiturate.
Suffering from severe paranoia due to his use of Veronal as a sleeping aid, he died under mysterious circumstances in his room in the Hotel Seiyoken in Tokyo while visiting colleagues at the University of Tokyo.
Particularly Georges Brunschvig and Anton Gordonoff, two main scientific experts in the case, accused the involved François Naville for wrong arguments concerning the confusion between Veronal and Quadronox.