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George M. Solan, MD
Northfield, Ohio

JAMA. 1975;231(8):810-811.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

To the Editor.—

I was taken aback when I read in the September issue of Drug Therapy (vol 4, No. 9, p 29, 1974) that one of our first-line defenses these days against an overwhelming infection might be the intravenous administration of a drug that had its origins in the sewers of Sardinia. This, of course, is the class of seven antibiotics called the cephalosporins.

That such a product of the lowest denizens of the slimy wastes should gain privy to the sacrosanct fluids of Homo sapiens through the minstrations of the physician may be symbolic of something. One is reminded that nature's grand scheme includes a fundamental system of intricate brakes on the otherwise unharnessed surges and thrusts of its organisms.

In their natural habitat, the antibiotic molds probably function, in part, to restrain the dominance of other living things whose unchecked overpopulation would spell disaster to higher forms of . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

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