886 CHEMOTHERAPY 



latter exists in the cinchona bark or can be prepared synthetically. In 

 experimental infections of mice the new drug (optochin) was found to 

 prevent the development of infection in some 90 per cent, of animals in 

 which treatment was postponed till after inoculation. Later Guttman, 1 

 Morgenroth and Kaufman, 2 and Levy 3 reported further experiments 

 indicating the protective and curative action of ethylhydrocuprein (base) 

 and its hydrochlorid in experimental infections in mice. Wright 4 found 

 that the administration of ethylhydrocuprein to man resulted in an 

 increased bactericidal power of the blood. These observations were 

 confirmed by Moore 5 with animals. Moore 6 also reported that ethyl- 

 hydrocuprein exerts a well-marked protective action against experi- 

 mental pneumococcal infection in mice in the case of type strains of 

 all four groups of pneumococci; this protective action was found efficient 

 against many multiples of the minimal lethal dose. Rosenthal 7 gives 

 an excellent review of the literature bearing on the chemotherapeutic 

 treatment of pneumonia, leading up to and including the work of Morgen- 

 roth and Levy and others. Cohen, Heist, and I 8 found that in mice the 

 intravenous injection of ethylhydrocuprein hydrochlorid in amounts 

 ranging from 0.02 gm. and higher per kilo of body weight affords com- 

 plete protection against 50 minimal lethal doses of pneumococci given 

 two hours later by intraperitoneal injection. Doses ranging from 0.01 

 to 0.006 gm. afford partial protection. Among rabbits a dose of at least 

 0.01 gm. of ethylhydrocuprein per kilo of body weight is required to 

 afford protection against fifty minimal lethal doses of pneumococci 

 given two hours later by intravenous injection. 



Clinically, the local application of a 1 to 2 per cent, solution of ethyl- 

 hydrocuprein hydrochlorid has been reported by a number of ophthal- 

 mologists as efficacious in the treatment of pneumococcus ulcers of the 

 conjunctiva and cornea, though somewhat irritating. Zentmayer 9 has 

 recently reported very favorably upon the treatment of pneumococcus 

 infections of the eye, and particularly corneal ulcers with daily applica- 



1 Ztschr. f. Immunitatsf ., 1912, 15, 625. 



2 Centralbl. f. Bakteriol., R., 1912, 54, 69, 



3 Berl. klin. Wchnschr., 1912, 49, 2486. 



4 On Pharmacotherapy and Preventive Inoculation Applied to Pneumonia in the 

 African Native, 1915. (This little book gives a complete account of the investiga- 

 tions of the author and his associates with ethylhydrocuprein and vaccines in human 

 pneumococcus infections.) 



5 Jour. Exper. Med., 1915, 22, 551. 



6 Jour. Exper. Med., 1915, 22, 269. 



7 Ztschr. f. Chemotherap., R., 1912, 1, 1149. 



8 Jour. Infect. Dis., 1917, 20, 272-347. 



9 Penna. Med. Jour., 1917, 20, 487. 



