1 1 28 CHEMOTHERAPY OF BACTERIAL DISEASES 



pneumococci, etc., becomes one of importance in relation to chemotherapy. But there 

 is practically no evidence of susceptibility of B. tuberculosis to antiseptics of this class 

 in vitro or that they have any favorable influence on the course of tuberculosis in 

 experimental animals. 



Interest in the possible selective bacteriostasis of chaulmoogra oil and its de- 

 rivatives for acid fast bacilli and particularly B. tuberculosis has been stimulated by 

 the reports of the curative properties of these substances in leprosy. Walker and 

 Sweeney have found the sodium salts of the total fatty acids highly bactericidal in 

 vitro, but Davis, Jager, and I observed that the oil itself was almost devoid of tu- 

 berculocidal properties and without any curative value in experimental tuberculosis 

 of guinea pigs. 



The alleged beneficial effects of hexamethylamin in various infectious diseases 

 cannot be explained on the basis of adequate liberation of formaldehyde in the 

 circulation and tissues. The drug itself is not antiseptic, and the hope of securing 

 systemic efifects through its use still seems impossible. Its one field of action seems 

 to be in bacterial infections of the urinary tract, and it is necessary that the urine be 

 markedly acid if the drug is to act efficiently. 



Jacobs, Heidelberger, Amoss, and Bull, however, have thought it worth while to 

 synthesize new compounds of hexamethylamin, and they have studied these with par- 

 ticular care for evidences of selective bacteriostasis for B. typhosus, streptococcus, 

 meningococcus, and gonococcus with some striking instances of partial specificity. A 

 particularly valuable outcome of their work has been to secure new information bear- 

 ing upon the important question of chemical constitution of the quaternary salts of 

 hexame thy lami n . 



It is possible to administer sufficient amounts of some of the new mercurial com- 

 pounds, and especially mercurophen and mercurochrome, to raise appreciably the 

 bactericidal effects of the blood. It is true that these effects are of short duration be- 

 cause of rapid elimination and fixation of the compounds by the tissues, but yet it is 

 sufficient to lend considerable basis for the hope that it may be possible to reduce ap- 

 preciably the degree of a bacteremia or dissipate it entirely by the intravenous injec- 

 tion of large but comparatively safe doses of these compounds. In fact, the results of 

 animal experiments have shown that this may occur in some instances. 



COMPOUNDS OF MERCURY, ARSENIC, AND OTHER SUBSTANCES IN THE 

 CHEMOTHERAPY OF EXPERIMENTAL TUBERCULOSIS 



With this review of the bactericidal effects of compounds of mercury, arsenic, and 

 other metals in vitro and in relation to the bactericidal properties of the blood in vivo, 

 their influence upon experimental bacterial infections of the lower animals may be 

 now briefly considered. I may state at once that the results have been largely disap- 

 pointing and of a negative character, but yet within the past few years some com- 

 pounds belonging to this class have yielded encouraging results. The experimentally 

 produced infections are usually quite severe and of short duration before death is pro- 

 duced, so that it is easily possible to mask or overlook slight but definite and promising 

 curative efifects produced by new compounds under study. For this reason it is readily 

 understood that compounds failing to influence appreciably an experimentally pro- 



