The Knoxville Journal from Knoxville, Tennessee • 29

If 1 i i WM I A r- i kv rf Jr: i 1 i fl i I ft iu 'jt i 'ti I i i i 7 -X A af Mfti ir A 'x i -1 -j- -v A i this neutral J' 1 't vt 1 4 uU7f 7r my nr BUNKERS FOR GERMAN This picture on the Atlantic according to the which reached this country via neutral Lisbon from caption which accompanied it A bunker is a protected Germany shows bunkers being built for German U-boats slip or drydock for submarines (AP) GERMAN TANK UNDER The ing to the German caption which accompanied turret and cannon for a heavy German tank picture which arrived in this country via ne are mounted at the factory where it was built accord- Lisbon (AP) jTiViiiMlwrlllw1lLlW1'lllfl1pfr 'I Priceless Pencillin Drug Scarce In Medical World rh yC 100 acres of good land that produce a sighed Harry Cunningham from his farm porch seven miles from Vincennes Ind replanted around 35 acres here but there time for all the Near Shelbyville in southern Illinois In heat of that thick heavy almost tangible quality that bottom land farmers admire 34-year-old Schmitz brought his painted tractor to a halt in knee-high corn He waved a hand: water was waist high here a few days ago I finished planting July 1 may- be four weeks late But Uncle Sam needs this corn and going to have a crop if we get a going to have a the chorus that comes up from the corded throats of every one of these fanners working from 4am far into the dark with dogged persistence stubborn refusal to admit defeat asking only a break In the weather Even the youngsters have the fever and the philosophy Eleven-year-old Bernard Racop a mighty mite of a boy in the Wabash Valley one of the hardest hit flood areas took a swig of water as he sat on the seat of his battered tractor and summed it up this way: have to depend on ourselves We get extra help these days But we're used to that We all work Just a little harder than 1 The farmers saw more than 600 irreplaceable tractors much other valuable machinery submerged by flood waters But aided by the army the Red Cross farm bureaus and other organizations they fished out their equipment repaired them and went back to work the kind of American farmer who watched the flood push its relentless way over his prized acres and has come back fighting to make a new crop jr BY FRANK CAREY WASHINGTON July 31 WV-A soldier casualty lay on a -bed at Veteran Hospital in Utah weak and delirious from a festering wound that had resisted all treatment including sulfa drugs for 14 months Bits of uniform missile fragments and fragments of bone shattered by high-velocity bullets still tormented his body because his gangrenous infection was such that doctors did not dare to operate to clear the wound He was not alone in his suffering Many other soldiers had wounds mostly compound fractures that had remained infected despite treatment with the sulfonamides and other drugs One soldier had a gaping wound in which a galosh buckle still showed through the poisoned flesh But then one day several months ago army doctors began injecting into the veins of the wounded men a newly-developed drug which had been authorized for trial at Bushnell by the Surgeon General of the army It was penicillin pronounced peni-sill-in with the accent on the A substance formed by the mold that grows on stale bread and cheese and which also can be obtained from similar molds grown in the laboratory Almost immediately the men began to Improve The festering of the wounds gradually subsided Within a week operations were performed in most cases to clear away the debris of the battlefield and drain the The soldier who had been suffering for 14 months without improvement was healed in 27 days That marked the first extensive use of the drug in an American military hospital But the work at Bushnell was authorized by the army only as a result of organized research started last year at selected civilian hospitals where the drug was employed to combat various baeterial infections among more than 300 cases with brilliant results Previously investigators in Great Britain where the drug was discovered in 1929 and first used in human cases in 1941 had reported remarkable results Both in this country and in England penicillin has succeeded in many instances where the sulfa drugs had failed The studies in the American civilian hospitals were made and are continuing under sponsorship of the medical research committee of the Office of Scientific search and development and under direct supervision of the Committee on Chemotherapy of the National Research Council The results obtained at Bushnell were so dramatic that the army instituted similar studies for wound treatment at Halloran Hospital and at eight other army general hospitals and the navy began using penicillin in 10 hospitals in the continental United States At about the same time the Public Health Service reported that penicillin had proved very effective against gonorrhea germs that had resisted the sulfonamides and as a result of that the army authorized separate studies of the use of penicillin in treatment of venereal disease at six other army hospital Why then is this remarkable drug not a part of the equipment of every doctor's medicine kit? The answer Is that penicillin is very scarce and difficult to produce The job of preparing and extracting the material is a long and painstaking one fraught with disappointments and the yield so far by a number of American commercial drug companies has been sufficient ohly to supply our armed forces and the few se lected civilian hospitals with very small quantities Authorities most intimately acquainted with present developments are hopeful that by the end of this year supplies of penicillin will be sufficient for the army and navy casualties returned to this country plus a supply for civilian necessities" But they say that penicillin probably will not be rvailable for general civilian use until after the war and even then its cost may be high At the present time there are no actual figures on its cost except that it is Why not synthesize make it from other chemicals? The answer is that despite extensive studies chemists have not yet determined the exact structure of the substance which appears first as tiny golden droplets on the mold and is ultimately processed into a yellow powder Attempts to synthesize it are continuing but Dr A Richards chairman of the committee of medical research for the Office of Scientific Research and development says: early synthetic of penicillin is not to be expected And it is conceivable that even if synthesis is accomplished production of the drug by that means might be even more costly that the natural method of obtaining it from the To prepare a single gram (one-thirtieth of an ounce) of an amount sufficient for about ten standard doses requires careful processing of approximately 20 quarts of culture fluid and mold over a period of 12 days And even then conditions must be perfect It is an ironic paradox that penicillin powerful as it is in checking the growth of many bacteria can itself be destroyed by microorganisms from the air while it is being processed of gallons of working materials have had to be dumped down the drain because of iippurities encountered declares Dr Richards been a heartbreaking job for the manufacturers and they should receive great credit for sticking to Not long ago a House Appropriations Committee was told that 20000000 units of penicillin had been sent to our armed forces in England and a similar quantity to the troops In North Africa A recent report to the medical profession on progress released through the Journal of the American Medical Association declared the results so' far are upholding the promises offered by the British investigators and that "there is good reason for the belief that it is far superior to any of the in the treatment of certain infections The report listed infection by the staphylococcus germs uhich cause gangrene in wounds and inflame the bone iynd marrow It listed infected burns empema or the accumulation of pus in cavities of the body cellulitis which is an inflammation of cellular tissue and carbuncles of the lip and face It said penicillin was effective against pneumonia and gonorrheal organisms that had resisted sulfonamides Investigators here and in England have found the drug effective in treating mas-toids meningitis certain streptococcal infections and brain wounds A recent report from England declared that wounds which had persisted from three months to 12 years were healed in four weeks after the use of penicillin So far It has not caused ill reactions in human cases when purely prepared compared with the sulfonamides which sometimes cause reactions And it has a further advantage over the sulfa drugs in that it Ls not hampered by large numbers of microbes or pus fluids Like the sulfa drugs penicillin does not kill bacteria It checks their furthre reproduction giving the normal protective waten-dogs of the human system the white blood corpuscles a chance to destroy existing bacteria The drug is so potent that it checks the growth of bacteria even when diluted up to 10000000 times The drug was discovered in England in 1929 by Prof Alexander Fleming University of London bacteriologist Fleming was conducting routine tests on a culture of staphylococci spread on a glass plate when he noticed a small particle of mold had formed on the plate Around the mold was a clear space free of the germs that covered the rest of the glass Fleming investigated and found that a substance excreted by the mold inhibited the growth of the germs He named the substance penicillin after the mold pern-cillum notatum from which it was derived In 1940 other British investigators led by Prof Florey anj Dr Chain of the University of Oxford succeeded in preparing a purified form of the drug and the following year administered it for the first tjme in human cases Five of the patients treated were the doctors said for whom no further treatment likely to be of benefit could be proposed" The first patient a 43-year-old English policeman died but only because th limited supply of pencillin had run out and only after the drug had effected a remarkable improvement his condition He had been suffering from an infection of both straphylococcal and streptococcal germs But the Britons achieved marked success in other cases including that of a six-month? old boy who had been practically wasting away They also treated four cases for eye infection by dropping the drug directly into the eyes In nearly all instances sulfa drugs had proved unavailing Prof Florey was so impressed (hat he came to this country to urge attempts to produce the drug on a large scale He was encouraged and aided by the committee on -medical research of the Office of Scientific Research and development by the Northern Regional Laboratory of the United States Department of Agriculture and by the chemotherapy committee of the National Research Council Late in 1941 several American drug companies started research designed to effect large-scale production and as small quantities became available' studies of the curative value of the drug were instituted In the selected civilian hospitals GERMAN TANKS BUILT ON ASSEMBLY A heavy tank is ready to be driven off the assembly line in a German factory as others move along the line according to the caption for this picture which reached this country via neutral Lisbon (AP)V Tramp Shipping Revisals Asked WARRIORS REVERT TO OLD STYLE These German paratroopers were put to work digging trenches on the Russian' front when their usual methods of warfare were put out of commission according to the caption which accompanied this picture which arrived in this country via Stockholm (AP) Illinois Farmers Rally From Damaging Floods ships designed mass production and using simple reciprocating engines instead of the faster precision-tooled and expensive turbines The Libertys will not be a competitive ship in the postwar scramble for restored international trade all experts agree Including those launched but not yet in service the total of Libertys has now passed 1100 The commission is planning gradually to transform the Liberty construction program ot the newly designed ships a-faster and more efficient type which will take longer to build but which will be a competitive vessel after the war Presumably it is the Liberty which will not qualify for the high speed competitive liner service after the war which Admiral Land has in mind for use in tramp service as an alternative to what took place after the first World War when thousands of tons of emergency-built shipping were tied up to collect barnacles Even $100 Reward Fails To Aid House Hunter BALTIMORE If you believe noubnt situation is really tough ask Irwin Bien Six days ago he advertised a $100 reward for a tip leading to his renting an apart-' ment None of the 40 answers won the reward and now stopped coming Bien undiscouraged is considering re- -running the ad tomorrow UUISTHVG FEET 1 1 iiimn in in Oar CaaiclanUaat Aaiwat HEALTH 7H SPOT i SHOES Diinktr at Caamarca tlt -JlU a OAI at DIAL l-MU PAGE FIVE WASHINGTON July 31 (flV-Out of the welter of postwar plans being discussed in various quarters has come one suggestion which could have profound effect on the peacetime economy Rear Admiral Emory Land Maritime Commission chairman in discussing the postwar Merchant Marine policy has suggested a reversal of the pre-war stand which opposed tramp shipping under the American flag His suggestion advanced in a public address presumably had the endorsement of his fellow commission members and has drawn some cautions but favorably inclined comment from Capitol Hill Chairman Bland (D Va) of the House Merchant Marine Committee author of the 1936 Merchant Marine Act which created the commission said the proposal was well worth careful study and that it undoubtedly contained some merit Tramp shipping as opposed to regularly scheduled liner service between specified 1 ports is shipping with' no fixed schedule or itinerary which goes when and where it can get business In its 193? economic survey of the Merchant Marine the then newly created commission under the chairmanship of Joseph Kennedy condemned tramp shipping as which it would be unwise for the United States to entire under conditions prevailing then But with the war came a brand new set of circumstances As a result of the current gigantic shipbuilding program the United States will emerge from the war with one of the -biggest if not the biggest merchant fleets in the world or in history as compared with its pre-war position as one of the most laggard of maritime nations Admiral Land visualizes a permanent postwar United States merchant fleet of about 20000000 tons with a shipbuilding and repair industry geared to maintenance of such a fleet Of the approximately 1700 ships which have been placed in service since the United States entered the war about half have been the slower and less efficient Liberty Note: Two months ago Illinois farmers saw 1491000 acres of their richest lands inundated by a diststrous flood Other midwest states were equally hard hit How did the farmers take the blow? John Temple of the Associated Press Bureau Springfield III went out through the farm lands to find out and this is the stirring typically American story he brought back) By JOHN TEMPLE BEARDSTOWN 111 July 31 Stand on the hills around Beardstown and Mere dosia in central Illinois and you can see thousands of rich farm acres sUll showing the ravages of what oldest residents call one of the worst floods in the history But you can see too the thrilling green of growing corn and soybeans in fields which during parts of May and June were under 10 to 20 feet of water And you can see lean tough-as-leather farmers racing their tractors urging sweat- drenched horses driving themselves in a race to cultivate those fields in the shortening growing season Illinois had hoped to plant some 20000 000 acres this year the flood drowned at least 1491000 acres for two days or longer Yet today only 200 0U0 to 250000 acres are listed as lost to 1943 production at riMt CAMOM Fomi SFor CMtaram CFtOn Amd innm DIAL 24611 611 Gay St Company Printing CAVALCADE SECTION THE KNOXVILLE JOURNAL AUGUST 1 19U.