U.S. HOSPITALS’ DISCOVERY

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25084, 16 January 1947, Page 8

U.S. HOSPITALS’ DISCOVERY

PENICILLIN AND HAEMOGLOBIN VALUABLE CURE FOR WOUNDS (From Our Own Correspondent.) NEW YORK, December 18. Penicillin, mixed with haemoglobin, the red colouring matter of human blood, is curing wounds and sores where nothing else succeeds, not even pure penicillin, it was reported to the American College of Surgeons to-day. Lieutenant-Colonel Felix Jansey ,of North-western University, said the discovery was made in two American hospitals in England, which were short of medical supplies and on their own initiative tried for new uses of what they had. Waste blood, of no use to anyone, was one thing these hospitals had in abundance. They extracted the haemoglobin, in the form of a red, sticky powder. They mixed it with water, making a jelly, and into this jelly they mixed penicillin. The mixture was placed directly into wounds where penicillin, given internally, had failed. In the blood the penicillin did not get higher than a certain concentration, and this concentration was not strong enough to kill some kinds of germs, which were highly resistant to penicillin In the red blood mixture the military surgeons placed a much stronger concentration of the drug, and in most cases only one application of the mixture had to be used. Colonel Jansey said that no bad effects of any sort had been reported, [n the haemoglobin the penicillin was released slowly. Pure penicillin did not have the same good effect in wounds, because it was absorbed too rapidly and was irritating to the wound.