Sept. 20, 1953
COMMUNICATIONS TO T H F C EDITOR
4623
observed differences in the course of the alkaline mately two days through use of the tray system degradation of chlorotetracycline and oxytetra- described by Jura and C ~ i d d l e . ~ The specific surface area of the femc oxide as cycline. Although tetracycline lacks both the 5-hydroxyl calculated from a BET plot of the nitrogen adgroup of oxytetracycline and the 7-chloro group of sorption data at liquid nitrogen temperature is chlorotetracycline, it possesses in witro activity 6.82 sq. meters per gram. The adsorption data (Table I) against a variety of microorganisms for heptane a t constant temperature may be fitted kz for relative preswhich parallels the broad antimicrobial spectra of by the equation p/v = kIfi sures ranging from 3 X to the highest measthese two antibiotic^.^.'^ ured; a relative pressure of 3 X lo-’ corresponds to a surface coverage, 0, of approximately 0.4 monoTABLEI layer. In the pressure range investigated the above ACTIVITY~~ IN VITROOF TETRACYCLINE equation is characteristic of the Langmuir and the Minimum inhibitory Brunauer, Emmett and Teller isotherms. In the concentration, BET notation, Vm ranges from 0.367 cc. a t 29.55’ to Species mcg./ml. 0.401 cc. a t 16.55’, while “c” ranges from 2070 to Aerobacter aerogenes 50.0 2470. If the nitrogen surface area be accepted as Klebsiella pneumoniae 12.5 cprrect, the area per heptane molecule in the monoEscherichia coli 1.56 layer varies from 63 sq. angstrom a t 16.55’ to 69 sq. Salmonella typhosa 0.78 Bngstroms at 29-55’; these values may be compared S. paratyphi 0.78 with that of 65 sq. hgstroms at 25’ reported by Staphylococcus aureus
