CHEMOTHERAPY 509 



and systemic effects of biliary salts these substances hold little 

 promise as medicinal agents for the treatment of pneumococcal 

 infections. 



SOAP 



So, too, with soaps. According to Lamar (1912), 775 sodium ole- 

 ate when added to specific immune serum and boric acid, may ex- 

 hibit an adjuvant action in combating pneumococcal infection of 

 the meninges. The combination regularly exerted a more powerful 

 action than immune serum alone and not only prevented the occur- 

 rence of infection, but also, when administered repeatedly, arrested 

 the progress of an already established infection and often led to 

 the recovery of the infected animals. The treatment, however, was 

 not applied to meningitis in man. Laurie acid was shown by 

 Walker 1476 to be strongly germicidal for pneumococci, while Lar- 

 son and Nelson 791 in their study of sodium ricinoleate found that 

 the soap was fatal to virulent cultures of the organism. These 

 compounds, however, were not administered to human beings. 



COAL-TAR DYES 



The affinities possessed by bacterial cells for dyes render the 

 cells susceptible to the bacteriostatic action of the dye retained by 

 the cell after treatment by the Gram technique, but the action of 

 the dye, even when mordanted, is rarely of such a nature as to af- 

 fect the organism when circulating in the blood stream. Of the 

 many substances studied with a view to ascertaining the pneumo- 

 coccidal action in the circulation, dyes of the triphenylmethane 

 series were found by Simon and Wood, 1288 in cultivation experi- 

 ments, to be strongly inhibitory to the growth of pneumococci. Be- 

 cause of their antiseptic or germicidal properties, the flavines have 

 received special attention from students of Pneumococcus. Schie- 

 mann and Baumgarten 1227 reported that acriflavine exerted a pow- 

 erful, selective action on both virulent and avirulent members of 



