124 



ANTISEPTICS 



Ion species, investigated the antiseptic action of many 

 different compounds. Since this work illustrates the 

 present problem, we give here (Table 24) the entire list 

 of compounds he studied. It must be remembered, how- 

 ever, that Diernhofer's work refers only to streptococci 

 versus colon-proteus types, and makes no general claim 

 for differentiation between Gram-positive and Gram- 

 negative bacteria. 



The best-known of the anti-bacterial substances pro- 

 duced by microorganisms, gramicidine, is so named be- 

 cause it is supposed to kill only Gram-positive bacteria. 

 Dubos and Hotchkiss (1941) summarize as follows its 

 selective action (and that of the allied substance, tyroci- 

 dine) : "Pneumococci, streptococci, staphylococci, diph- 

 theria and diphtheroid bacilli, aerobic and anaerobic 

 sporulating Gram-positive bacilli, have all been found 



TABLE 23 



Sensitivity of various organisms to sodium azide. (From Hart- 

 mann, 1936.) 



