Resistance of Bacteria to the Penicillins

Like the dozen books of this series that preceded it, this one is a record of one day's discussion on a very timely subject by an international group of eminent scientists who are among the leading and most active contributors to the subject. The Study Group met in February 1962 and the discussion dealt with penicillins and penicillinase(s), their actions, interactions and roles in the resistance of microorganisms to penicillins in zitro and in vivo. Most of the emphasis was on the new, penicillinase-resistant penicillins, of which the first important one, methicillin, had been announced less than a year and a half earlier. Appropriately enough, the first formal paper was by E. B. Chain, one of the original team of Oxford workers who developed penicillin; he discussed the background of the isolation of the penicillin nucleus, 6-aminopenicillamic acid, and the development of the new group of semisynthetic penicillins by the workers of the Beecham Research Laboratories for whom he served as consultant. H. J. Rogers and M. R. Pollack of the National Institute for Medical Research and Robert Knox of Guys Hospital contributed summaries of their own contributions and reviewed the work of others on the mode of action of the penicillins, penicillinase and of the types of resistance to different penicillins. Chain was rather sanguine about the widespread use of all penicillins, particularly the new penicillinase-resistant ones, and was joined in this attitude by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's J. C. Sheehan who achieved the total synthesis of penicillin. On the other hand, Mary Barber, who was one of the first to recognize and emphasize the importance of penicillin-resistant staphylococci in hospitals and who presented her recent experiences with staphylococci resistant to penicillin, was much more conservative in her approach to their use and was supported in that position by L. P. Garrod, G. Wallmark and K. R. Eriksen, each of whom has also had extensive experience with the increase in resistant infections in hospitals. Barber's position was fortified by the fact that she had already encountered the spread of infections in hospital wards with staphylococci of two specific phage types which were naturally resistant to the new penicillins. Other discussants who added new material and different insights were Citri (Hadassah Medical School), Chabbert (Pasteur Institute), Hayes (geneticist of Hammersmith Hospital), Park (formerly of Vanderbilt, now at Tufts), Rolinson (one of the principal workers of the Beecham team), Welsch (Liege) and Elizabeth Work (Twyford Laboratories). The volume is handsomely bound in convenient pocket size. It should prove interesting and informative to physicians and microbiologists and particularly valuable to those concerned with infectious diseases and their treatment.