The agent responsible for deformed limbs in the newborns in the late 1950s was?

thalidomide, a mild sedative-hypnotic agent. During the 1950s women in more than 20 countries who had taken this drug gave birth to more than 7,000 severely deformed babies. The principal defect these children suffered is phocomelia, characterized by extremely short limbs often with no fingers or toes.

Read more: Birth Defects - Causes of defects, Physical birth defects, Hereditary diseases and syndromes http://science.jrank.org/pages/935/Birth-Defects.html#ixzz0tAC3sUFR