As methenamine, commonly used as a urinary antiseptic, has acquired some vogue as a cerebrospinal antiseptic, it was thought that hexylresorcinol, a new urinary antiseptic, might be eliminated in the cerebrospinal fluid when taken by mouth. It had been pointed out that, since methenamine was effective only in an acid medium, its value in the neutral or faintly alkaline cerebrospinal fluid was questionable. In hexylresorcinol, on the other hand, one has a drug possessing antiseptic properties regardless of the acidity or alkalinity of the medium in which it is dissolved.1
A further advantage in the use of hexylresorcinol lies in the fact that the less fluid ingested, the greater the effect of the drug, at least as far as the urinary tract is concerned. Veader Leonard and Austin Wood2 have shown that hexylresorcinol is a powerful surface tension reducent. Its remarkable bactericidal power is probably largely dependent on