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1333hospital is £5 2s. 8d., which is a little more than a 14-day course of ampicillin in the dosage used in this trial.It would seem, then, that in ampicillin the physician has a useful addition to his armamentarium for the treatment of pneumonia. SummaryA controlled trial was carried out to compare the use of ampicillin with a combination of penicillin and streptomycin in the treatment of pneumonia. Seventy-eight patients were allocated to the ampicillin group, in which the regime was oral ampicillin 250 mg. six-hourly for 7 or 14 days. Sixtyseven were allocated to the penicillin/streptomycin group, in which the regime required injections of penicillin 1 mega unit b.d. for 7 or 14 days with streptomycin 1 g. b.d. for the first seven days. The treatment groups were comparable, and the results of treatment were similar in the two groups. The only difference of statistical significance was that a larger proportion of cases infected with pneumococci alone became afebrile within one week when treated with ampicillin than when treated with penicillin and streptomycin. Ampicillin appears to be at least as effective as penicillin and streptomycin even in the comparatively small doses used in this trial. There would appear to be an advantage in domiciliary practice in using a drug that can be given by mouth, and if an allowance is made for the cost of giving injections there is little difference in the expense.Our thanks are due to the following doctors who played a major part in the day-to-day conduct of the trial: Drs.

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