It IS NOW abundantly clear that penicillin is the most satisfactory antisyphilitic remedy so far developed. It is perhaps not more effective than arsenic given in intensive doses, but it is certainly safer, rapid in action and more readily administered. The best results thus far obtained have been with penicillin in aqueous solution.1 However, this method of administration has two major disadvantages:
It requires hospitalization of the patient, and adequate bed capacity for the large number of patients requiring treatment is at present not available.
The financial outlay on the part of the patient, as well as the hospital, is often prohibitive.
It is therefore essential—indeed, imperative—that a satisfactory ambulatory method of therapy, one that is readily available to the patient as well as to the practitioner, be developed. The introduction of the absorption-delaying mixtures seems to meet the requirements. Penicillin injection in oil and wax U.S.P.