STUDIES ON THE ACTION OF PENICILLIN

Abstract

Although reports of the efficacy of penicillin in the treatment of gonorrhea¹ began to appear soon after the drug became available for clinical trial, not one of them has sufficiently emphasized the rapidity of its curative action. This point is brought out in the present study, which was undertaken as a part of an investigation into the mode of action of penicillin. Since infections of the male urethra lend themselves readily to bacteriologic and cytologic observations, gonococcic urethritis in the male is peculiarly suited to the study of the mode of action of a chemotherapeutic agent. METHODS The first 7 patients were hospitalized for treatment. Smears and cultures of urethral exudate were made on admission and before the first injection of penicillin.² Smears and cultures were made in duplicate. One of the smears was stained by Gram's method and examined at once, the other saved for later examination