AXTISEPTICS 151 



retarding dose, does not decrease the oxygen uptake at 

 all. 



Greig and Hoogerlieide (1941), working with sulfan- 

 ilamide, came to the conclusion that ''germicides in bac- 

 teriostatic concentrations have no effect on metabolic 

 rates (oxygen uptake) of bacteria, but inhibit multipli- 

 cation ' '. 



MacLeod reported (1939) that sulfapyridine in doses of 

 125 ppm. retards the action of the dehydrogenase of pneu- 

 mococci for glycerol, lactate and pyruvate, but not that 

 of glucose-dehydrogenase. No records are given about 

 the tolerance of the bacteria involved, but it seems safe 

 to assume from a preceding paper by MacLeod and 

 Daddi (1939) that 60 ppm. caused complete inhibition 

 of the original strain. 



The only data showing a real correlation between re- 

 tardation of respiration and retardation of growth are 

 those of Sevag and Shelburne with streptococci (1942a) 

 and pneumococci (1942b). The parallelism is very strik- 

 ing in some of the experiments with streptococci in which 

 the sulfonamides reduced both the oxygen consumption 

 and the rate of multiplication by the following amounts : 

 Decrease in Decrease in 



oxygen consumption rate of multiplication 



59% 59% 



62% 66% 



68% 65% 



64% 69% 



64% 64% 



An equally close agreement was obtained with anaero- 

 bic cultures where the formation of acid was measured. 

 These results contradict all the others previously men- 

 tioned, probably because they represent abnormal growth 

 conditions. Sevag and Shelburne used inocula of nearly 

 a billion cells per cc, that is, about the maximal popula- 

 tion obtainable in broth. They also used very large 



