" Antimicrobum "

"Antimicrobum "

Antimicrobum tomarkin is the rather unoriginal cognomen of a new and powerful bactericide for the treatment of pneumonia, discovered by Dr. Leander Tomarkin, a young Swiss physician of Russian origin, conducting researches in laboratories at Rome.

The drug is a synthetic compound in the form of gray powders contained in gelatin capsules, soluble in water, and apparently administered by way of the mouth. Used in cases of pneumonia at the University of Rome and Italian military hospitals, it is claimed to have reduced the morality rate from 35% to 2%. Dr. Tomarkin's offer to treat the late Pope Benedict, who died from pneumonia, was at first refused by the Vatican authorities, but he was finally called in when the Pope's condition was desperate, too late to save the patient.

Like many other "cures," the new remedy has met with much skepticism among the medical profession. American physicians, commenting on the reports, say the results claimed are unbelievably good. They demand detailed scientific tests. At Bellevue Hospital, Manhattan, a serum has been developed during the last three years which has cut the pneumonia deathrate from 30% to 15%, according to Dr. Russell L. Cecil. Many other investigators have been working on pneumonia remedies, mostly of a serological nature. Dr. Tomarkin's cure merits favorable consideration, at least, from the fact that it is vouched for by Professor Ettore Marchiafava, one of the most respected of Italian medical scientists, famous for his work on plasmodium, the germ of malaria.