The local anaesthetic drug salicaine hydrochloride (hydroxytetracaine hydrochloride, 4-butylamino-2-hydroxybenzoic acid 2-dimethylaminoethyl ester hydrochloride, SLCHC) and the free-base salicaine (SLC) were characterized by thermal analysis, vibrational and solid-state NMR-spectroscopy, X-ray powder diffraction, X-ray single crystal structure analysis, and water vapor sorption analysis. Additionally, the crystal structures of the anhydrate mod. II degrees (monoclinic, space group P2(1)/n), the hydrated mod. I (triclinic, space group P(bar)1), and of the free base (SLC) in the form of the hemihydrate (triclinic, space group P(bar)1 are discussed. Mod. II degrees of the polymorphic SLCHC is the thermodynamically stable form at room temperature and is present in commercial products mostly contaminated with a hydrated form that is isomorphic with mod. I. Mod. II degrees crystallizes from most organic solvents and from the melt below 110 degrees C. Mod. I crystallizes from the melt at temperatures above 110 degrees C, and additionally appears on dehydration of the hydrated mod. I. A third polymorph monotropically related to mod. II degrees was found by freeze-drying. The free-base SLC was found to crystallize from ethanol/water as a triclinic hemihydrate.