THE ACRIDINE group of antiseptics were used by surgical teams during part of the first World War and sporadically thereafter. During World War II. in an effort to find an effective agent in cases of resistance to penicillin and sulfonamides, the interest in the acridines was revived and remarkable success was reported with certain of the derivatives by British and Australian investigators.1 Added stimulus has been supplied by the synthesis in recent years by Adrien Albert and his colleagues2 of equally effective but less toxic derivatives, notably 2-7 diaminoacridine hydrochloride and 5-aminoacridine hydrochloride.
In 1945, one of us (H.R.H.) began using 5-aminoacridine hydrochloride in solution locally in infected wounds, in contaminated perineal wounds following abdominoperineal resection and in compound fractures with sepsis encountered in a civilian hospital. Sulfonamides, penicillin and supportive measures had been fully employed without appreciable effect on the local condition prior to the use of 5-aminoacridine. Although the