The Ypsilanti daily press. (Ypsilanti, Mich.) 1928-1962, 1944-04-22

a factor that the public often for
gets in the developments Of drug
in modern times.
Behind that simple looking little
tablet you get at the drug store
lies a vast stretch Of carefully
conducted experiments, with the
work Of patient laboratory work.
ers, chemists and pharmacologists,
and physicians at the bedside maxi
ing carefully controlled observa-
tons, during long days and long
nights Of back-breaking labor.
Your light and careless ques-
tions-"What is it good FORT" and
"How many shall take :" and
"How often!" and Before or
after meals ?"-are answered by
the druggist with facile ease and
you get to thinking the druggist
is a very wise man and so he Is,
but his answers are the conf
pressed and formulated results Of
all that research.
Olu llWe hcNHOus
II was not always so. The old
herb woman found a herb in the
woods and she cured q fever with
Il. and became convinced that it
was good for fever and called 1t
"feverwort." And she went on her
whole life crushing up the whole
plant and giving it to fever pa
tients and handed down the wis.,
dom to the third and fourth gen.
Grafton. There may have been a
germ Of truth in her dictum, but
think of the waste involved in her
ministrations. Many, many people
with fever did not improve on her
treatment, but she never stopped
to figure out the percentages or to
separate the kinds Of fever so that
she knew in which kind the fever
wort" was really calculated to do
some good.
She never stopped to investigate
which part Of the plant-leaves,
roots, flower, stem-contained the
active ingredient. In the course
of time the pharmacists did that
for some piants-aconite and digi-
tails preparations use the leaf Of
the plant, belladonna the root, and
arnica the flower. And the old
herb woman never had any idea Of
whether the isolated specimen she
was using was active or not, or
how active.
Note the difference in modern
procedure. When it was found
that the mold penicillin was bene-
fetal for certain fevers or infec-
tions, many people were impatient
because they could not obtain it
ut once. But think Of what had
to be done to conform to modern
scientific requirements.
Experimentation With Penicillin
Laboratory workers had to find
exactly which kind Of the many
penicillin molds is the most active;
then the dosage; then whether it
was best absorbed by mouth, hy-
podermically or in the vein; then
whether It was toxic or poisonous
and in what dosage; then, If pos
sible, what its chemical compost
tion is and whether an active prin-
ciple can be synthesized in the
chemical laboratory. Then, and
this Is the final stage, exactly
what kinds Of patients (agc, etc.
and what kinds Of diseases 1t could
be expected to benefit.
The reports on this last stage
are just coming in. The Journal
Of the American Medical Associa-
ton" devotes almost its entire is
sue Of March 4th to the subject.
In summary it may be said that
penicillin gives satisfactory re-
suits in IS per cent of pus infec-
tions due to staphylococcus (in
which the sulfa drugs have not
been too helpful, in so per cent
of pneumonia infections, in some
streptococcic infections Tin which
apparently the sulfa drugs are
better) and in 100 per cent Of
gonococcic infections.
Broken down into clinical types
research has shown that penicillin
gives satisfactory results in boils,
carbuncles, wound infections, lobar
pneumonia, most venereal infec-
tions, bone infections (osteomyeli-
tis), ear infections, meningitis and
abscesses Of many kinds. 1t is not
so satisfactory in blood stream in
fections, chronic bronchitis. kid
ney infections and tuberculosis.
The medical profession again, as
it has thousand times before, in
regard to new drugs, must warn
the public that penicillin is not q
sure-all.