OUTLOOK FOR THE FUTURE 317 



Less than four years later, Florey (274) summarized the value of 

 penicillin: "i. As a preventive of infection in wounds, enabling a po- 

 tentially septic wound to be treated in much the same way as an aseptic 

 one, 2. in the promotion of healing in burns and for ensuring the suc- 

 cess of skin grafts, 3. in infections (due to sensitive organisms) either 

 (a) chronic, or (b) of such severity as to render the prospect of death 

 likely, which have not responded to other forms of treatment, 4. in 

 acute infections due to sensitive organisms, 5. in the rapid curing of 

 gonorrhoea including sulphonamide-resistant cases, 6. in pneumonia, 

 7. probably in gas gangrene, but here numbers have been few and meth- 

 ods not fully tried out." 



In commenting upon the remarkable developments in the use of 

 penicillin, Keefer (493a) stated: "It can be said without reservation 

 that penicillin is the most remarkable chemotherapeutic agent that has 

 been discovered up to the present time. In the first place, it is a sub- 

 stance of extremely great antibacterial power. One mg. of crystalline 

 penicillin is capable of inhibiting the growth of staphylococci in 82.5 

 liters of broth. It is non-toxic in maximum therapeutic doses in man. It 

 is highly efFective against a wide variety of microorganisms of the 

 gram-positive group. It is effective in both gonorrhea and syphilis. It is 

 responsible for the reduction of the fatality rate in more diseases than 

 any other chemotherapeutic agent j it shortens the clinical course of 

 many infectious disorders, and it saves many days of illness and dis- 

 ability. When one realizes that this can be accomplished by an agent 

 that destroys bacteria and other microorganisms such as the Treponema 

 pallidum without injury to the tissues of the host, it deserves to be called 

 remarkable. No other known agent can do as much." 



Only one year later, the remarkable effectiveness of streptomycin 

 was summarized by Waksman and Schatz (970) as follows: 



"7;^ VIVO streptomycin has sucessfully controlled experimental infec- 

 tions due to Salmonella schottmUllerij Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Pro- 

 teus vulgaris, Shigella gallinarum, Brucella abortus, Klebsiella fneu- 

 moniae, Pasteurella tularensis and 'Mycobacterium tuberculosis. 

 Against the gram-positive Di-plococcus pneumoniae and Stafhylococ- 

 cus aureus protection was afforded by somewhat larger doses. Strepto- 

 mycin has also protected against spirochetal infections due to Borrelia 



