ACTION OF PENICILLIN, ESPECIALLY ON TREPONEMA PALLIDUM

Abstract

The precise way in which penicillin acts to destroy microbial life is unknown. Penicillin differs, however, from the common antiseptics, such as the phenols, in that it is not a general protoplasmic poison. In this respect it resembles other antibiotic substances as well as the sulfonamides, which act primarily by inhibiting the growth of the cell. For this reason it is generally assumed that penicillin interferes with the normal completion of some metabolic transformation, thus inhibiting the development of the cell and leading eventually to its death. Certain antibacterial substances are inhibited by specific chemical agents. The identification of the inhibitor has contributed in some instances to a clearer understanding of the essential mode of action of the anti-bacterial substance, as for example the inhibition of the sulfonamides by para-aminobenzoic acid. In this instance the phenomenon has been explained by the fact that para-aminobenzoic acid is a factor in bacterial