Drug Notes

Drugs new & old in the limelight last week:

> Demerol is a synthetic painkiller and sedative introduced in Germany in 1939. It acts much as morphine does, is not as habit-forming. A British doctor recommends it in childbirth. Demerol's great advantage: the chemicals from which it is made are plentiful. Opium, from which morphine is extracted, is not.

> A British medical officer reports curing 1,000 cases of scabies (itchy skin infestation caused by barely visible burrowing parasites) by painting patients "from neck to soles with a 20% benzyl benzoate emulsion." He claims his method is faster and cheaper than the classic system of baths, sulfur ointment and sterilization of clothes and bedclothes. Only 0.92% of his patients needed a second coat.

> Penatin, like penicillin (TIME, June 7), is a drug extracted from the mould Pencillium notatum. The University of Pennsylvania's Dr. Walter Kocholaty calls it even more powerful against bacteria than penicillin.

> Propamidine is a new synthetic British antiseptic which attacks streptococci and staphylococci in wounds. Applied in a salve made of vaseline, it makes many wounds sterile in ten days. The salve is irritating to normal skin.

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