“M AND B 693.”

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIX, Issue 117, 18 April 1939, Page 6

“M AND B 693.”

From Khartoum comes further evidence of the astonishing results achieved in the treatment of certain diseases with the sulphauilamide drug known as “M and B 693.” Mortality in epidemics of cerebro-spinal meningitis ranging from 6(1 to 86 per cent, has been changed to a recovery rate of 96 per cent., and the hope is expressed that this dread malady will now be controllable with little loss of life. Nearly a year ago reference was made in a cablegram from London to the striking results of this treatment in a few very severe cases of pneumonia. At the time comment was made that there was no more astonishing chapter in the history of medicine than that which opened a year or two previously with the "discovery in Germany of the virtues of the substance now known as “Prontosil.” This compound was declared to possess remarkable powers of combating streptococci. It was tested widely in cases of puerperal fever, of severe sore throat, and of sinus infection, and the results attained left little doubt that a therapeutic agent of exceptional potency had been secured. But Rrontosil, it was stated, was not free from certain disadvantages, and then came the second compound in the same series, sulphanilamide, with its “crowning virtue its truly astonishing power of arresting streptococcal meningitis,” a disease of evil reputation. But certain disadvantages in the shape of unpleasant effects had to be removed, and in the search for better compounds the research staff of a well-known London firm produced the sulphanilamide drug known as “M and B 693,” described by Dr Whitby, of the Bland Sutton Institute of the Middlesex Hospital, as being equally effective with sulphanilamide against streptococci and meningococci, and as possessing the special advantages of being active in a relatively small dose and more or less non-toxic. According to a London report the mode of action of all the members of the group is engaging close attention because someevidence is now available which points to a direct attack upon bacteria. “It is not often perhaps that discoveries in the realm of pure science of so important and even exciting a nature have been accompanied by spectacular but solid therapeutical achievement,” says this commentator.