US2073625A - Venereal prophylactic - Google Patents

Description

Patented Mar. 16, 1937 UNITED STATES PATENT, OFFICE vENEnEALrnornrLAcnc se en-momma, rm Bragg, N. o; No Drawing. Application November 2? 1933,

Serial No. 099,431

'3 Claims. (01. 167-58) (Granted under the act Mm 3, 1883, as

- amended April 30,1928; 370 o. G, 757) invention described herein may be manufactured and used by or .for t e Government for governmental purposes, witho t the payment to me' of any royalty thereon.,

5' The invention relates to preventative medicine,

more particularly it is directed to-the control of venereal diseases, through'the use of a chemical prophylaxis which-if applied immediately after exposure will destroy the infecting agents and j thus prevent theinvasion of the tissues and consequent' development of the disease.

The United States ,Army in its efforts to control venereal diseases, such as syphilis, gonorrhea and chancroid {soft chancre) has depended largely,v upon the establishment of venerealprophylactic stations? Individuals reporting to these stations are given a prophylactic treatment consisting essentially of an external genital anointment-with a 1-1000 solution of mercuric chloride, followed witha urethral injection of from four to six cc. of a two percentsolution of protargol, argyrol or similar germicide.

This method of. venereal control, has proved highly effective, when treatment has beenadministered before the organisms invade the tissues,

but any delay, which intervenes between exposure and the application of the prophylactic, 'serves to proportionally decrease the chances that the prophylactic will prevent-infectionfand it is this so time, factor which cbn'stitutes therweak phase in the prophylactic station control.

All toorfre'quently' the remoteness of the station or procrastination delays application for treatment until'the effective. period has elapsed, with.

the result that theadmini'stration of the'prophylactic comes too late. I a

It is therefore the aim and purpose of this in v 'vention to eliminate the prophylactic station with, its requirement for specially trained personnel 40 and expensive administrative equipment andsubstitute a venereal control, in the nature oi a prophylactic composedessentially of soap, and a suitable base; the prophylactic being-self adminfor venereal control.

. Before selecting the prophylactic comprising the phylactic described and claimed in my co-p'ending application Serial Number 557,741, filed August .17, 1931, which briefly stated comprised a. bougie composed of 30 parts gelatin, 20parts glycerim, 1

I iiipart soap and 100 parts water. This type of prophylactic was satisfactory from the standpoint of its germicidal properties but was objectionable to the extent that it did not adequately provide for external anointment of the genitals and its use was sometimes accompanied with considerable 5 pain. To remove these objectionable features, the bougie has been replaced by theinstant preparation which is prepared in the form, of a paste adapted'to be distributedin one dram collapsible tubes, one half of the contents of the tube to be 10 employed to externallytreat the genitals and the remaining portion to be utilized'for injection in the urethral tract.

Another object of this invention is to provide a prophylactic agent in the nature of a water 501- 15 uble paste which after. going into solutiomwith. the glandular excretions of the urethral canal will readily penetrate the lacunae of the urethra; that is to 'say the little recesses in the mucus membrane of the tract into which empty the ducts of 20 t the urethral glands and wherein frequently lurk the infected organisms to be destroyed; With these and other objects in view, this invention consists in certain novel details with-respct to'the mode'of preparation and amounts of 25 ingredients to be more particularly hereinafter set forth and claiinecL- i The problemof a suitable dependable prophylactic to replace the present method of venereal V control hasoccupied the attention of theArmy 3 medical investigators for several years, as they havereallzed that the tendency of hunian nature. to'procrastinate injected aserlouadefect in any venereal cont'rolwhich involved more or less of a journey from the place *ofexposure to the pro- 35 phylactic' statiomt They also appreciated the fact; than any substitute, relying upon self ad-- ministration must be simple in: application and effective with respect to three distinct types of inectiom, requirement of a prophylactic e ually eh,-

ecti've against the poisons of syphilis, gonorrhea" "and chancroid made it necessary to disregard the wellknow'n'yenereal germicides and led to ex- 1 perimentation with soaps which were recognized aswealcdlsinfectants. :Aft'er considerable laboravtory experimentation, a pure-neutral soap, such as castile was found to -be best suiterLto' the pursubject matter of this application an investigatin unit of the Army experimented with the pro-.-

posf Even pure cas'tlle soap, however; i! too the membranes of the urethral canal.

This observation led to testsof castile soap in various strengths above that known to be neces ysary to kill the invading micro-organisms, and in carrying out these testa'purecas'tile soap to the 5 strong,,was'found to he more or less irritating to 50 killed the organisms responsible for syphilis, gonorrhea and chancroid in about 2 minutes and did not irritate even a highly sensitive urethra,

then this would be the ideal strength for the germicide in the prophylactic.

The next factor considered in the solution of prophylactic problems was the choice of a carrier for the germicide, which would bring the latter intointimate contact with the organisms to be destroyed.

The selected germicide, pure castile soap, being water soluble, it was decided the most desirable base would be one having this same characteristic, so that when the germicide and base both went into solution with the glandular excretions of the urethral canal, the prophylactic would not only bathe the wall of the canal but would also penetrate the lacunae of the urethra, thus reaching the places where the poison germs sometime lurk. To this. end a base was selected consisting of tragacanth, corn starch, glycerine and water.

Having determined the most effective germicide, its strength, and the base, the following formula was derived:

To prepare the prophylactic from the preceding formula, the soap, tragacanth, corn starch and glyce'rine are dissolved in 10 c. c. of water, the

mixture heated to"140 C. After the mass has been allowed to cool the resulting paste is placed in a one dramcollapsible tube 'for distribution.

To aid in the administration of the prophylactic, the distributing tubes are preferably formed. with extended nozzles suitably dimensioned for easy insertion into the urethra. as

will be readily understood without further discussion.

In conclusion it may be stated, tests made with this prophylactic have demonstrated that as a venereal control it is inexpensive, simple in administration and apparently highly protective and equally efiective with respect to syphilis, gonorrhea and chancroid.

Having described my invention, what I claim as new and wish to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A venereal prophylactic comprising a soap, the strength of the latter being sufficiently effective as an injection and unguent against the micro-organisms responsible for syphilis, gonorrhea and chancroid, but non-irritating to the surface treated, and a hygroscopic and cell stimulating base adapted to carry'the soap into intimate contact with the invading organisms, said base including glycerine and water, the soap and base being soluble in the glandular secretions of the urethral canal.

2. A venereal prophylactic comprising a soap, the strength of the latter being approximately 1-100th, but sufiicient to be equally effective against the micro-organisms responsible for syphilis, gonorrheaand chancroid, hutnon-irritating to the surface treated, and a hygroscopic and cell stimulating base to carry the soap into intimate contact with the invading organisms, the. Soap and base being soluble in the glandular se-- cretions of theurethral canal, said base comprising tragacanth, corn starch, glycerine and water.

3. A venereal prophylactic comprising a soap of a strength sufllcient to be equally eflective as an injection and as an unguent against the microorganisms responsiblefor syphilis, gonorrhea and chancroid, but non-irritating to the surface treat- .ed, and a base including a hygroscopic agent adapted to stimulate the cells of the urethral tract whereby to produce an abundant solvent so that thesoap and base goinginto solution with the the invading micro-organisms..

' SEWELL M. CORBE'I'IK,

solvent will be carried into intimate contact with v