To the Editor:—I was much interested in your answer to a query about Stannoxyl (The Journal, March 6, p. 629). I submit the following experience as a confirmatory note:
While serving with the Royal Army Medical Corps in Egypt, I for some time had charge of the medical division of a hospital in which most of the skin diseases occurring among soldiers in the district were treated. The most common conditions were boils and septic sores, chiefly due to staphylococcal infection, though several of the latter cases were diphtheritic. The treatment adopted was that in ordinary use, namely, incision and evacuation of pus, application of antiseptic dressings, and in most cases employment of the specific vaccine. It was possible to judge of the efficacy of any variations of treatment, as there were always plenty of cases undergoing the usual treatment with which the results could be controlled.
An available supply of Stannoxyl, a proprietary remedy consisting of a mixture of metallic tin and tin oxid, enabled me to give it a fair trial in full doses in eight cases of boils of average severity, in which culture revealed the infecting organism to be Staphylococcus aureus. The boils were treated locally as usual, but no vaccine was given. No improvement could be demonstrated in these cases that could not be shown in other cases similarly treated with the omission of Stannoxyl; in fact, three of the treated cases were much longer in clearing up than the untreated controls. Eight cases do not constitute a very large series from which to draw conclusions; but if the preparation were as good as the descriptive literature would lead one to believe, one should have expected an evident result in at least one of these cases.
It has been stated that Stannoxyl does not inhibit the growth of staphylococci, but only renders the growth less virulent. It is known that a certain amount of tin may be absorbed from the intestine, and Salant, Rieger and Treuhardt have shown that in certain cases tin may be retained for some time in the skin; but it is questionable whether, when preparations of tin are given by mouth, any reaches the staphylococci in the boils, or at any rate enough materially to influence their growth or virulence.
In the cases treated by me, the results did not at all suggest that Stannoxyl was a “specific for diseases of staphylococcal origin.”
J. W. C. Gunn, M.A., M.B., Ch.B., Cape Town.
Professor of Pharmacology, University of Cape Town.
—(Correspondence in The Journal A. M. A., Nov. 20, 1920.)
Syphilodol
To the Council on Pharmacy and Chemistry:—If you have not already done so, will you kindly examine and report on “Syphilodol” advertised in the enclosed pamphlet?