Abstract
Lambert and Meyer 1 bathed fragments of rabbit spleen in a suspension of Staphylococcus aureus for one minute followed by immersion in graded solutions of mercurochrome for 20 minutes. Tissue cultures were then prepared in hanging drops of homologous plasma, following 2 washings of the tissue in physiological salt solution. A second set of hanging drop cultures was made from non-infected tissues similarly exposed with appropriate controls of untreated tissues. Mercurochrome in a dilution of 1–250 killed Staphylococcus aureus, 1–500 killed fragments of spleen tissue.
German 2 bathed skin of chick embryos in solutions of mercurochrome for one and 5 minutes. They were washed in Locke's solution, then embedded in a mixture of plasma and embryonic extract. For the bacterial tests, fragments of muscle and fascia were bathed in a broth culture of Staphylococcus aureus followed by immersion in the various dilutions of mercurochrome. After periods of one and 5 minutes the fragments were planted on agar plates. “Efficiency indexes” were determined by multiplying the percent of tissue cultures showing growth by the percent of bacterial cultures showing inhibition at the same concentration. Mercurochrome gave an efficiency index of 0.0132 (perfect germicide = 1.00).
Buchsbaum and Bloom 3 prepared chick tissue cultures in which the various dilutions of mercurochrome were embedded in chick plasma. The test organism, Staphylococcus aureus, was added to the embryonic fluid. The cultures were observed for bacterial and tissue growth after 24 and 48 hours' incubation. They stated that an antiseptic killing the bacteria at concentrations that would not harm the cells would have an index of 1.0 or greater (greatest dilution that killed the organisms divided by the greatest concentration in which cells show approximately normal growth). Mercurochrome was given an index of 0.5.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.