WITHIN the past nine months two new antimicrobial agents, erythromycin and carbomycin (Magnamycin), have been described and preliminary reports of their clinical use have been published.1 Each has been shown to have in vitro activity of a high order against most Gram-positive bacteria, including the pneumococci. A small study was undertaken, therefore, to test the efficacy of both agents in the initial management of adult patients with proved pneumococcal pneumonia. This report describes the results of the administration of erythromycin to 12 and carbomycin to 8 persons with pneumonia. The series was not enlarged because the results of therapy in both groups were so unsatisfactory that further study was precluded.
METHODS AND MATERIALS
The 20 unselected patients were treated in the general medical wards of the Syracuse Medical Center Hospitals and received similar accessory medical and nursing attention. Infection in the group as a whole was not unusual (Table