NEW DRUG

Grey River Argus, 5 July 1944, Page 6

NEW DRUG

FROM EARTH MICROBES. CURE FOR WOUNDS. (Rec. 7.55) NEW YORK, July 3. A new drug ha's been discovered by Mr Rene Dubos, an American research chemist, at the Rockfeller Institute for Medical Research, which, is called tyrothricin. It will heal many wounds which formerly were believed to be incurable. The drug is said to act magically upon carbuncles, boils and ulcers. It will not supplant sulpha drugs and penicillin. Mr. Dubos discovered tyrothricin while experiment' ing with microbes which had been found in earth. He noticed that earth seemed to destroy the most dangerous germs, and that when victims of tuberculosis, plague, or pneumonia were buried, 'the germs were destroyed. After isolating microbes from the earth, Mr. Dubos found that a chemical, secreted by the microbes destroyed all other bacteria. His first, patient was a man who had suffered from a bad leg ulcer for fourteen years. Three weeks after the spraying of the ulcer with tyrothricin, the leg was completely healed.