The Germicidal Properties of Certain Quarternary Ammonium Salts With Special Reference to Cetyl-Trimethyl-Ammonium Bromide.

In 1916 Jacobs, Heidelberger, and coworkers at the Rockefeller Institute reported the discovery of a new class of synthetic compounds which possessed potent bactelicidal properties. By reacting hexamethylenetetramine with a large variety of substituted benzylor alkyl-halides, nujmerous quaternary salts of this base were obtained. It was observed that most of these salts had pronounced bactericidal properties. Unfortunately, these early observations received little attention. It was not until 1935 that Domagk focused attention again on this group of compounds. This investigator observed that bactericidal properties are not restricted to the quaternary salts of hexamethylenetetramine. They are a general property of a large number of quaternary ammonium salts having the general formula: