Bacterial Action of Aromatic Compounds. 65 



otherapy of lobar pnuemonia, substances which are less toxic 

 must be sought for. 



The first question to be determined is whether pneumo- 

 coccicidal properties are common to ethoxy compounds in general 

 or whether this property is peculiar to ethylhydrocuprein and its 

 closely related compounds. We have accordingly tested the bac- 

 tericidal action of the ethyl ethers of various aromatic compounds, 

 and compared them with the corresponding hydroxy compounds. 

 In making the tests a suspension of pneumococcus type I. from 

 the Rockefeller Institute was suspended for the desired interval 

 in a broth solution of 0.9 per cent. NaCl containing the substance 

 whose action was to be determined ; and after the desired interval a 

 loopful of this stroked across a rabbit's blood agar plate and in- 

 cubated 24 hours. In the experiments with the gonococcus a strain 

 was used which had been isolated from a case of typical anterior 

 gonorrhoeal urethritis in the Outpatient Service of the Genito 

 Urinary Division of the University of Minnesota, and which had 

 been grown in Vedder's starch bouillon and on starch bouillon 

 agar and rabbits' blood agar. Tests were made in the same way 

 as for pneumococcus except that the drug was mixed with starch 

 bouillon. The cultures were then transferred to rabbits' blood 

 agar and incubated 24 hours. 



The following substances were tested, + indicating growth 

 of the cocci after being exposed to the drug for the period in- 

 dicated, — indicating that the cocci did not grow. 



OH 



COONa 



1. Sodium salycilate II 5% the Pneumococcus / + a ? ter *° m ! n ' 



1 — after 60 mm. 



\/ 



OC 2 H 5 



n COONa 

 5 % Pneumo + after 60 min. 



Substances Nos. 2, 4, 10, 11, 12, 13 were prepared by Mr. Merrill C. Hart, 

 chemical assistant in the department of pharmacology, University of Minnesota, and 

 No. 9 was kindly furnished by Prof. Roger Adams, University of Illinois, to both of 

 whom we extend our thanks. 



