AN EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF THE VALUE OF HEXAMETHYLENAMIN AND ALLIED COMPOUNDS

This study was undertaken to determine the capacity of infected kidneys to excrete hexamethylenamin. We had just had a small series of unilateral kidney infections in which large doses of hexamethylenamin had failed to be of any benefit. The frequent clinical failure of the drug it was felt might depend on its inability to pass through such impaired organs. At the outset, full credence was placed in the generally current valuation set on hexamethylenamin, i. e., when taken by mouth, it is excreted in the urine, bile, pancreatic, synovial and cerebrospinal fluids in sufficient quantities to be of marked bactericidal value. This confidence, however, was not strengthened by a rather thorough review of its extensive literature, and personal experimental results which quickly developed gave still greater uncertainty. Ever since Nicolaier introduced it into medicine, nearly twenty years ago, the efficiency of the drug has been ascribed to its decomposition