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THE PENICILLIN Syphilis Group at the University of Pennsylvania has treated 746 patients with penicillin since Nov. 11, 1943. Of these, 283 had neurosyphilis. The average period of observation is 357 days, the longest period of observation being 719 days. One hundred and nineteen had been observed from 120 to 364 days, 55 for 365 to 599 days and 23 for 600 days and over. Thanks to the follow-up workers of the Institute for the Control of Syphilis, 97.7 per cent of these patients have been kept track of and returned for periodic observation and treatment. The material is classified by diagnosis and initial spinal fluid findings in table 1. The patients with negative spinal fluids at the outset showed symptoms against which response could be measured. POINTS DESERVING EMPHASIS IN THIS MATERIAL In order to be considered for penicillin treatment, the patient must have presented some

THE increasing availability of penicillin, and more recently of streptomycin, has led to the less frequent use of the sulfonamide compounds as ocular therapeutic agents. In several instances these antibiotics are superior to the sulfonamide compounds. Penicillin is locally effective in the presence of purulent material. It is very effective against ocular infections due to many gram-positive organisms, and streptomycin is effective against several gram-negative organismal infections.There are many occasions, however, when the so-called antibiotics will not be helpful. Organisms become resistant to the effects of penicillin, and especially to streptomycin. These agents rapidly lose their potency when not kept under refrigeration, particularly when in solution. Some patients acquire hypersensitivity to penicillin or streptomycin. In any of these predicaments the substitution of one of the sulfonamide drugs might be beneficial.Although it is not universally accepted,1 there is evidence that the sulfonamide compounds are effective as bacteriostatic agents

WHEN it was found that the use of BAL (2,3-dimercaptopropanol) was of considerable value, both prophylactically and therapeutically, in the treatment of eyes exposed to lewisite (2-chlorobetachlororinylarsine) burns,1 the problem arose as to what extent BAL penetrated through the normal or the abnormal cornea and into the anterior chamber. Since BAL essentially neutralizes the toxic heavy metal arsenic in lewisite burns, the possibility that BAL might be of importance in treatment of intoxications due to other metals, such as lead, mercury and cadmium, also warranted this study.An accurate, yet practical, method for the quantitative estimation of BAL was investigated. The cobalt nitrate test of Kensler and Rhoads,2 the porphyrindin test of Greenstein3 and the iodometric titration of sulfhydryl groups, as used by Woodward and Fry for glutathione, were tried. The iodometric titration was chosen and used exactly as recommended by Woodward and Fry,4 except that

There have appeared excellent reviews by Bellows,1 Alvaro,2 Thygeson3 and Wagener4 concerning the toxic properties of the sulfonamide compounds on ocular structures. Although much has been written about the toxic influence of these compounds on wound healing elsewhere in the body, only recently has consideration been given to their influence on healing of ocular wounds. Bellows considered this property in his review in June 1943. The data for these conclusions were based on the experimental work of Bellows and Gluckman.5 These authors concluded that locally applied sulfonamide compounds greatly deter regeneration of corneal epithelium. Berens, De Gara and Loutfallah6 demonstrated in 1943 that the average healing time of the wounds of the cornea treated with sulfonamide ointment or with the ointment base alone was usually greater than the average healing time of the untreated eyes. They suggested that the local use of the sulfonamide