Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
June,  1918. 
Antiseptics. 
443 
In  the  course  of  our  preliminary  experiments  on  the  effect  of 
eusol  on  live  tissues  we  found  that  large  quantities,  as  much  as  40 
to  50  Cc,  could  be  injected  into  the  blood  stream  of  rabbits  without 
injuring  the  animal;  following  up  this  line  of  investigation,  with  a 
view  to  attacking  sepsis  in  the  blood,  we  have  met  with  a  consider- 
able measure  of  success.  We  applied  this  method  of  treatment  in 
the  first  instance  to  a  case  of  puerperal  septicaemia  in  the  Maternity 
Hospital  in  this  city.9  The  patient  was  suffering  from  an  extremely 
grave  form  of  blood  poisoning ;  the  treatment  was  completely  suc- 
cessful. 
Following  on  this,  Captain  John  Fraser,  R.  A.  M.  C.,10  applied  the 
same  treatment  to  soldiers  suffering  from  the  acute  toxaemia  arising 
from  wounds  infected  with  the  gas-producing  organisms — Bacillus 
Welchii,  B.  sporogenes,  etc.  These  organisms,  which  cause  what  is 
known  as  gas  gangrene,  owing  to  the  fact  that  they  produce  large 
quantities  of  gas  inside  the  tissues,  are  the  scourge  of  the  casualty 
clearing  stations ;  they  are  spore-bearers  and  therefore  difficult  to 
kill  and  the  spores  are  present  everywhere. 
In  certain  types  of  gas  gangrene  toxaemia,  Captain  Fraser  found 
intravenous  eusol  as  strikingly  successful  as  in  our  first  case,  but 
in  others  it  did  not  seem  to  have  any  effect;  and  this  has  been  the 
experience  of  all  workers  who  have  employed  the  method.  Sir 
Herbert  Waterhouse,11  in  his  report  from  Anglo-Russian  Hospitals, 
says : 
We  entertain  the  highest  opinion  of  its  value  as  a  life-saving  method  in 
many  apparently  hopeless  cases  of  septicsemia  and  pyaemia. 
This  treatment  was  the  subject  of  much  investigation  under  our 
own  care  at  the  Sick  Children's  Hospital  in  Edinburgh.  A  paper 
on  the  subject  was  published  in  the  Edinburgh  Medical  Journal12 
this  summer.  As  a  result,  we  found  that  evidence  of  benefit  was 
recorded  in  cases  of  lung  infection  such  as  broncho-pneumonia, 
empyaema,  abscess  of  lung ;  in  toxaemia  from  appendicitis,  and  in  one 
case  of  toxic  diarrhoea,  also  in  cases  of  chronic  meningitis.  No 
benefit  accrued  in  cases  of  rheumatism  or  in  tuberculosis. 
The  problem  we  are  now  engaged  on  is  to  find  out  why  in  cer- 
9  Lorrain  Smith,  Ritchie  and  Rettie,  B.  M.  /.,  1915,  2,  p.  716. 
10  Fraser  and  Bates.  B.  M.  J.,  1916,  1.  83. 
11  Sir  H.  Waterhouse  and  others,  B.  M.  J.,  1917,  2,  441. 
12  Lorrain  Smith,  Ritchie  and  Rettie,  Ed.  Med.  Journal  Sept.,  1917. 
