Abstract
Evans1,2, as a result of studies on the cause of coalminers' pneumoconiosis, discovered that methanolic extracts of certain coals exerted an inhibitory effect on bacteria in vitro. He named the component responsible for this inhibition ‘vitricin’, from its apparent association with vitrain—the bright, vitreous ingredient of banded bituminous coal. Evans questioned the assumption that inhaled coal particles are biologically inert, and suggested that dusts derived from bacteriologically active coals might exert a prophylactic effect in the lung.
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References
Evans, W. D., Colliery Eng., 28, 465, 513 (1951).
Evans, W. D., Trans. Inst. Min. Metall., Lond., 65, (1) 13 (1955).
Kosanke, R. M., Science, 119, 214 (1954).
Schenck, N. C., and Carter, J. C., ibid., 213.
Mills, A. A., thesis, University of Nottingham (1958).
Vincent, J. G., and Vincent, H. W., Proc. Soc. Exp. Biol., N.Y., 55, 162 (1944).
Ahmad, B., J. Roy. Inst. Chem., 81, 417 (1957).
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MILLS, A. Biological Properties of Coal and Coal Extracts. Nature 184, 1885–1886 (1959). https://doi.org/10.1038/1841885a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/1841885a0
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