Pneumococcic pneumonia has been found to respond to aureomycin therapy in a manner comparable to that observed with penicillin. A rapid defervescence was noted in 31 of 33 patients treated by Gocke, Collins, and Finland,1 and there were only two deaths, both occurring within 18 hr. after starting therapy. Dowling and others2 reported a case fatality rate of 1.5% among 131 cases of pneumococcic pneumonia treated with aureomycin, as compared with a rate of 5.2% in 686 cases treated with penicillin.
Much less is known concerning the effectiveness of chloramphenicol in the treatment of pneumococcic pneumonia. This antibiotic has been reported by Bliss and Todd3 to have little effect on the course of pneumococcic infections in mice. In man, however, clinical studies in a small number of patients have yielded encouraging results.4
The following study, carried out during the first six months of 1950, was undertaken