The Chemotherapy of Infections *

THE report of the red dye, prontosil, as a chemotherapeutic agent (Domagk, 1935) was followed by the demonstration that its activity depended upon sulphanilamide. Analogues with a wider antibacterial range soon became available. A decade getting to know the sulphonamides was followed by another learning to use penicillin. The nineteen-fifties witnessed the introduction of broad-spectrum antibiotics and several further antistaphylococcal agents (Table 1). It seems likely that the present decade will be dominated by a new family of semi-synthetic penicillins. Thus far we have seen and used only a few, but one of them has already dealt a major blow at naturally resistant staphylococci, by its indifference to the penicillinase which they produce. The potential for providing new synthetic penicillins appears to be limitless. It is hoped that they will be chemically dissimilar, for only on this basis can-they be expected to be therapeutically distinctive.