The Ypsilanti daily press. (Ypsilanti, Mich.) 1928-1962, 1944-06-29

only, and then only through
his column.
have had almost unlimited sup
plies of 1t for some time. A few
hospitals where the scientific at
tainments Of the staff men we're
known to be high and satisfactory
have been given some samples
Of it.
At present If a doctor has pa
tient on whom sulfa drugs have
been tried and failed he can
usually obtain enough penicillin
for trial in that instance. Now
that the supply is sufficient this
distribution may be made more
liberal.
The public doesn't always stop
TO think of the obstacles in the
way Of a new drug like this being
available. One step, and the step
which has just been completed in
the case of penicillin, is TO select
and license manuf lecturers who
are competent TO turn out pure
product. Two years ago United
States pharmaceutical houses be-
gan TO be granted licenses for
this purpose.
Manufacture OF Penicillin
At present there are Is firm,
producing penicillin under con.
tract and very shortly it is ex.
pected this number will be %
Even with the great facilities Of
modern pharmaceutical manufac-
turing firms this is no more than
enough because the usefulness and
application of penicillin is very
wide indeed. There is hardly any
fever or form Of infection in
which it is not possibility.
have seen and studied a few
clinical cases in which it was
tried and have talked TO a good
many doctors about it. What i'm
presses one is that even the most
conservative of these say that the
widest dreams we held of its use
fulness are realized. Not one but
several have repeated in so many
words that it is better than the
sulfa drugs.
1t has been told 50 often that
it is hardly necessary TO repeat
the story of its discovery. Peni-
cillin is a mold, or fungus, such
as grows on damp bread. There
IS hardly one of my readers who
mas not seen penIellnn. IL WaA
for years the pest Of bacteriolog-
lists because it contaminated their
culture media. Finally, in 1929,
Professor Alexander Flemming
made one of those flashes Of OBJ
servation such as have so often
started science on a new adven-
ture.
Discovery of Penicillin
1t is a moderate calculation that
10000 laboratory workers and
psychologists had seen culture
media on which staphlycoccic
germs were growing and were
contaminated by penicillin mold.
But they just looked, they didn't
observe anything. Profess
sor Flemming suddenly noticed
that where the mold began to
grow the pus germs died out. And
from that all the research fol-
lowed.
1t would be easier 10 list the
germs in which penicillin is in
effective in killing them off than
the ones in which it does work.
Most Of the germs which penicil-
lin fails to affect are those of
tropical diseases, or so rare as to
be negligible. in routine practice.
We had realized a great dream
with the sulfa drugs and supposed
that no improvement could be
made on them, but as was init
mated above, penicillin works on
cases where the sulfa drugs have
failed.
At this season it is worth
noting that it is even effective in
tetanus, or lockjaw, the real cause
Of the mortality of Fourth of July
wound contamination. One hardly
supposes there will be much cele-
bration Of the Fourth this year.
There are enough Americans
shooting off fireworks in other
parts Of the world, so that our
own plot Of earth might be spared.
But that sort Of dream is prob
ably too much to expect.
Should some enthusiasts decide
TO have an old fashioned celebra-
ton it would be well for. the local
doctor to see that some penicillin
is available with which TO treat
them when the inevitable injury
occurs. He should have some te-
tanus antidotes too, but that is
ONLY for preypntion TN e. a.