Benzyl Penicillin

The search for an orally administered and stable penicillin preparation with high therapeutic efficacy led to the recent discovery that the benzyl ester of penicillin, given orally, was at least equal in protective effect to the equivalent weight of sodium penicillin administered parenterally to mice that had received lethal doses of pneumococci and hemolytic streptococci by intraperitoneal injection.' Following the demonstration that benzyl penicillin was non-toxic to experimental animals and human volunteers, preliminary therapeutic tests had been carried out on a group of infants with impetigo,2 and the rapidity with which the lesions cleared suggested a definite curative effect. Recently, a patient with chronic bacteremia due to an organism inhibitable by penicillin both in vitro and in vivo, yet refractory to cure by the drug, offered himself as a test subject for benzyl penicillin. Should the drug have proved as effective in maintaining sterility of the blood as did sodium and calcium penicillin glven parenterally, the patient could conceivably have been kept indefinitely in a state of therapeutic remission even though not cured of his infection.