Word: gramicidin
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
This crystalline killer has been named "gramicidin" because its victims all belong to the large class of microbes which take the gentian violet and iodine stain developed by Hans Christian Joachim Gram of Denmark. Gramicidin protects mice against huge doses of virulent pneumococci and all the other blue-staining germs so far tested. Since the tubercle bacillus belongs to this group, it seems almost certain to succumb to gramicidin...
Unlike the sulfonamide compounds (sulfanilamide, sulfapyridine, sulfathiazole, etc.), which have abundantly proved their worth for humans, gramicidin has so far been tried only on animals. Dr. Dubos prefers to regard his work to date as an adventure in experimental science. Doctors are keeping their fingers crossed, but at Cleveland they hollered their heads off for the experiment...