EARLY CONGENITAL SYPHILIS: Treatment of Two Hundred and Fifty-Two Patients with Penicillin

The avowed purposes of this study were to evaluate the effects of sodium penicillin in the treatment of early congenital syphilis, to find the best means for using this drug alone and to discover criteria by which results might be predicted. Observations incident to treatment of 252 infants in five cooperating university clinics have furnished a wealth of information toward these ends. The recent joint statement issued by the Committee on Medical Research, the United States Public Health Service and the Food and Drug Administration1 indicates that efforts to relate results quantitatively to various dosage schedules may be partially invalidated. There have been changes in the purity, potency and composition of commercial penicillin mixtures furnished to us since this study began. There have also been considerable variations in the actual amount of penicillin in individual vials labeled as containing 100,000 units.2 Though the extent to which these changes