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Although dermatophytes occasionally infect superficial portions of the mucous membrane and skin of the eyelids, primary and secondary mycotic infections of the eye are relatively rare. Birge 1 recently published an excellent comprehensive review, with more than 300 references, dealing with infections of the eye caused by fungi and fungus-like higher bacteria. Therefore, a detailed summary of the literature would hardly serve any significant purpose in this paper. An extensive review of many published papers on the general subject failed to disclose any instance in which Monosporium apiospermum was associated with corneal ulcer or other infection of the eye. The purpose of this paper is to present the clinical and pathologic observations in a patient with corneal ulcer and hypopyon which failed to respond to antibiotics, sulfonamide drugs, or other therapeutic measures, which are usually successful. M. apiospermum was cultured from the lesion, and fungi were demonstrated in histologic sections

ANTIBIOTIC-producing strains of bacteria of the normal flora of various tissues of humans have been found to be very common in recent years. The intestinal tract,* eye, 4 nasopharynx,† skin and oral cavity ‡ have proved rich in such microorganisms. The antibiotic activities of the enteric bacteria have been most intensively examined. Suggestive evidence that such inhibitory strains may be related to recovery from bacillary dysentery has been obtained.§ A previous paper from this laboratory 4 has described some rather striking general analogies between the situation in the intestinal tract and the ocular flora with respect to such bacterial inhibitors. The present report summarizes the survey findings relating such antibiotic-producing strains to the presence of clinical conjunctival inflammation in the groups examined previously. MATERIALS AND METHODS The subjects employed in this study were inmates of a New York state institution for the feebleminded.∥ They were of either sex, from 2

This paper presents the clinical and histologic ocular findings of two patients who developed toxic retinal changes while receiving sparsomycin, an antibiotic from Streptomyces sparsogenes used as a cancer chemotherapy agent. A preliminary report of these cases appeared recently. 1 The cases are the first reported of patients showing ocular toxicity to this drug. Report of Cases Patient 1. —A 44-year-old Negro man had both a local recurrence of, and lung metastases from, a previously resected transverse colon adenocarcinoma. Sparsomycin was given intravenously in an initial dose of 0.6 mg which was increased by 0.1 mg increments daily until 1.0 mg/day was attained. This level was maintained for nine days until a total dose of 12 mg over a period of 13 days had been given. On the 13th day of therapy the sparsomycin was discontinued because of the patient's complaint of blurred vision. An ophthalmic consultation was obtained the

A survey of current literature reveals a significant reduction in the incidence of otogenic complications. 2 This is universally attributed to the use of antibiotic and chemotherapeutic agents. 3,5,9,11,12 The purpose of this paper is to call attention to the fact that the problem of otitic meningitis in this antibiotic era has not fully been solved. This is particularly true in infants and young children. The mortality rate still remains high in this age group. Successful conduct of suppurative meningitis requires a concerted effort of both the public and the practitioners of medicine. The public must be conditioned to seek medical aid promptly. The key to an early diagnosis is in the hands of the general practitioners and pediatricians. They are likely to see the child with meningeal symptoms first. They must be ever meningitis conscious. However, the otologist must share his responsibility in order to reduce this high incidence

Novobiocin, a newly developed antibiotic that is produced by a species of Streptomyces, was discovered almost simultaneously by two independent groups of investigators.* As reported by Frost and co-workers 3 and Wilkins and co-workers, 4 novobiocin was active in vivo and in vitro against Gram-positive cocci, Proteus, corynebacterium, Pasteurella, and Neisseria. No cross resistance has been found between novobiocin and other clinically useful antibiotics. Although the drug was obtained from two different sources, the common identity of the compound has been established by the infrared absorption spectrum and chemical and biologic methods.† We have used novobiocin in the treatment of 75 patients with various diseases. This paper presents the results obtained. Methods Seventy-three patients were treated at the Research and Educational Hospitals, University of Illinois, and the Westside Veterans Administration Hospital and one case each at Hines Veterans Administration and the Cook County Hospital. We are indebted to the staffs

Shortly after Mahoney's 1 original observation that penicillin was effective in the treatment of human syphilis, it was known that penicillin produced allergic reactions in some persons. Subsequently, reports in the literature indicated that such reactions might be expected in from 1% to 6% of treated patients. With growing frequency, the physician faced the problem of choosing a therapeutic agent for patients with syphilis who were sensitive to penicillin. The choice was either a return to the difficulties and dangers of treatment with arsenic and bismuth or the utilization of some other antibiotic with treponemicidal properties. The latter choice presented a problem to the average physician of accumulating and evaluating occasional and widely scattered reports in the literature. It is the purpose of this paper to review the literature and to select and comment upon some of the possible choices available to the physician

LARYNGEAL obstruction, whether due to foreign body, to inflammation, or to J allergic reactions, alarms the patient and the laryngologist. It is a problem of serious import, necessitating constant vigil and prompt remedial action. Treatment may be medical or surgical, or at times both. It is the purpose of this paper to deal with laryngeal obstruction due to penicillin. The newer antibiotics are not discussed here because they have been in use only a short time and few cases of sensitization have developed. Peck and Siegal 1 at Mount Sinai Hospital, New York, have studied allergic reactions to penicillin and have divided them into four groups: Group 1: Reactions similar to those seen in other cases of drug sensitization and often characteristic of serum sickness. Closely allied to this group are the various toxic erythemas and the severe local reactions after the administrations of penicillin in beeswax and peanut oil.

The antibiotic synnematin, isolated by Gottshall et al., 1 is produced by the mold Cephalosporium salmosynematum. It has been separated into components A and B by Olson, Jennings, and Junek. 2 Synnematin B is active primarily against Gram-negative organisms, including Salmonella, some strains of Proteus, and strains of Shigella and Neisseria. Toxicity by intramuscular injection is reportedly negligible, both in animal experiments and in clinical studies of Salmonella infections. 3,4 In a recent paper presented in the Proceedings of the Fourth Annual Symposium on Antibiotics a member of the Abbott Laboratories reported that synnematin B was seven times less toxic than penicillin in animals. 5 The antibiotic has not been crystallized, and all material available for use was less than 50% pure. * In a personal communication to one of us (A. H. W.) 5 it was called to our attention that two cases of pinta had been cleared

Introduction Numerous papers have been published about antibiotic-resistant staphylococci, particularly those resistant to penicillin. Most of these publications deal either with hospitalized patients or with healthy staphylococcal carriers. As knowledge about the sensitivity to antibiotics of coagulase-positive staphylococci in patients suffering from pyoderma is scanty 1-5 this work was undertaken. The aim was to study the difference in sensitivity to antibiotics of coagulase-positive staphylococci cultured from pyodermatic lesions in the outpatient department with regard to the following factors: Clinical type of pyoderma, e.g., impetigo, furuncle, infected trauma Contact with hospital before visiting the outpatient department Patient hospitalized during previous 12 months Other member of family hospitalized during previous 12 months No member of family so hospitalized In addition the sensitivity of the coagulase-positive staphylococci cultured in 2 parallel periods in 1958 and 1959 was compared. Since many patients did not know which medicines they had previously received, the connection between sensitivity of

After a period of 14 years, antibiotics still pose problems to the clinician, and many of those problems are the result of antibiotic-resistant micro-organisms. Of course, some of the bacteria and most of the viruses and fungi have never been affected by antibiotics. Our attack on infections by those organisms consists in the development of effective antibiotics or other therapeutic agents or by measures designed to improve the host's defenses. In this paper we are concerned with some strains of bacteria that are inhibited by a certain antibiotic while other strains are not. That this does not include all of the bacteria that commonly cause infections in humans is shown in the table. Infections caused by the organisms in group 1 usually respond promptly to sufficient amounts of the proper antibiotics, and, although resistant forms have been produced with difficulty in vitro, these resistant forms have not been found in

Stuart Way and one of us (G. C. A.) recently reviewed the literature of acne vulgaris with especial reference to hormone imbalance.1The present paper simply describes an experiment. Two years ago we decided to try to use for a year only antibiotics and estrogenic substances in treatment of acne vulgaris and not to employ X-ray irradiation. We had up to that time achieved some good results with antibiotics, estrogenic substances, and other modern medicines. This small success made us wonder whether modern medical progress had reached a point where acne could be cured by these remedies. Our success during this first year of the experiment was so satisfactory to all that we have continued the experiment through the second year without any misgivings as to its superiority over the older methods of treatment in vogue five or 10 yr. ago. Whereas prior to the beginning of this experiment

Fumagillin is an antibiotic isolated by Hansen and Eble, in 1949, from Aspergillus fumigatus and later found to be amebicidal. When it is used in doses of 40-60 mg. a day for 10 to 14 days to treat human amebiasis, undesirable side-effects are seen in some patients. Headache, insomnia, nausea, tenesmus, vomiting, diarrhea, and some sensory defects are reported. 1-4 The most usual dermatologic reaction is a widespread maculopapular eruption, occasionally with an urticarial component, which usually appears by the 6th to 10th day of therapy and clears within a few days after the medication is stopped. 5,6 When this reaction was severe, Radke 5 discontinued the drug for two days and was able to resume it without incident, which led him to call it a Jarisch-Herxheimer reaction rather than a drug eruption. The skin reaction with which this paper is concerned is a nonerythematous scaling of the