Sulfathiazole administered orally, or parenterally as its sodium salt, is effective in the treatment of many serious infections. Sulfathiazole administered locally in an ointment base should be effective in the treatment of pyogenic cutaneous infections. Actually the sulfonamide drug to be incorporated in an ointment base should not be selected until a culture from the infected area has been taken and the type of invading organism has been determined. However, it is rarely possible to obtain uncontaminated cultures from cutaneous lesions and since the staphylococcus and, to a lesser extent, the streptococcus are the most frequent invaders of cutaneous lesions, sulfathiazole seemed to be the sulfonamide drug of choice for local application in an ointment base. A 5 per cent sulfathiazole ointment was prepared by suspending finely powdered sulfathiazole, which had been sifted also through bolting cloth to remove large crystals, into equal parts of hydrous wool fat and vanishing