SULFANILAMIDE AND KELATED CHEMICALS IN THE 

 TREATMENT OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES^ 



By Wesley W. Spink, M. D. 

 Assistant Professor of Medicine, Minnesota Medical School 



Last fall the University of Minnesota Medical School celebrated its 

 fiftieth anniversary. A scientific program was arranged and included 

 addresses by outstanding scientists of this country and Canada. The 

 committee in charge of the program wisely selected a central theme 

 for all the addresses and round table discussions. That theme was 

 "Some Trends in Medical Progress with Particular Reference to 

 Chemistry in Medicine." All the speakers emphasized the tremen- 

 dous contributions that chemistry has made to all branches of medi- 

 cal pursuit. Tonight it is my purpose to discuss with you one of the 

 most significant advances made in the treatment of human disease. 

 This momentous discovery which has already alleviated untold suf- 

 fering is a further tribute to the ingenuity of the chemist. 



Before unraveling the story of sulfanilamide, it is necessary to re- 

 view briefly the development of our knowledge concerning infectious 

 diseases. Prof. Hans Zinsser has defined an infectious disease as 

 follows: "Wlien microorganisms gain entrance to the animal or 

 human body and give rise to disease, the process is spoken of as an 

 infection." It was a little more than 50 years ago when this rela- 

 tionship between disease and bacteria was definitely established. It 

 is true that during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries when syph- 

 ilis was so common, it was suspected by some that an infectious agent 

 was responsible. But it remained for those intellectual giants of the 

 latter part of the last century to prove that bacteria caused disease. 

 Leaders among these were the French chemist, Louis Pasteur, and 

 the Prussian general practitioner, Robert Koch. 



Wlien the causes of infectious diseases became known, efforts were 

 made to control them. One of the methods established was to prevent 

 the organisms from reaching human tissue. Excellent examples of 

 this preventive type of medicine were the control of malaria, yellow 



^ From the Division of Internal Medicine of the University of Minesota Hospital and 

 Medical School. One of the thirteenth annual series of public lectures sponsored by the 

 Minnesota Chapter of the Society of the Sigma Xi. Reprinted by permission from the 

 Sigma Xi Quarterly, vol. 28, No. 2, summer, 1940. 



479 



