Bacterial action of some organic compounds of mercury / by T.A. Henry, T.M. Sharp, and H.C. Brown.
- Thomas Anderson Henry
- Date:
- [1925.]
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Bacterial action of some organic compounds of mercury / by T.A. Henry, T.M. Sharp, and H.C. Brown. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![[All Rights reserved] LXXVI. BACTERICIDAL ACTION OF SOME ORGANIC COMPOUNDS OF MERCURY. By THOMAS ANDERSON HENRY, THOMAS MARVEL SHARP and HENRY CODDINGTON BROWN. From the Wellcome Chemical Research Laboratories and the Wellcome Bureau of Scientific Research, London. (Received May 6th, 1925.) Though many organic compounds of mercury have been prepared, especially during the last few years, and much laboratory and clinical work has been done in ascertaining the possibilities of their application as medicaments, there is as yet a scarcity of systematic information regarding the bactericidal action of such substances, although such knowledge must form the basis on which the use of these products in medicine depends. The most important work of this kind done so far is that of Schoeller and Schrauth. I hey showed [1910] that, beginning with a simple compound such as hydroxymercuribenzoic acid HO—Hg—C6H4. COOH, there was little change in bactericidal activity when HO— was replaced by bromine or chlorine, a marked diminution on replacement by iodine or cyanogen, still greater re¬ duction on replacement by sulphur, and that activity almost vanished when HO— was replaced by a second benzoyl radical as in mercuridibenzoic acid. In a second paper [1912] they showed that by the insertion of other sub¬ stituents in hydroxymercuribenzoic acid the bactericidal action could be markedly influenced. Thus it was increased by halogen or alkyl groups or by a second hydroxymercuri residue and diminished by hydroxyl, sulphonic acid, or amino groups. These observations relate for the most part to new sub¬ stituents in the or/^o-position to the carboxyl group, but some evidence was obtained that the orientation of substituents also affected the intensity of bactericidal action, e.g. in C6H3(COONa)(Hg.0H)(CH30) the three sub¬ stituents in positions 1:2:4 were less efficient than in positions 1:2: 6. Two species were used in these experiments, viz. B. anthrads and Staphylococcus pyogenes aureus. There was little evidence of any specificity in action, but it must be remembered in this connection that all the compounds were not tried on each species. In a third paper [1916] the same authors dealt with the influence of the same substituents in the absence of the carboxyl group, the latter being re¬ placed by hydroxyl. Here bactericidal action was intensified to start with, the carboxyl group being a weakening factor, but the influence of the sub¬ stituents already referred to remained the same so far as it was tried, with the](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b30625270_0003.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
