From Demons to DrugsMiracles from Microbes by Samuel Epstein; Beryl WilliamsReview by: Albert L. ElderThe Scientific Monthly, Vol. 64, No. 2 (Feb., 1947), pp. 181-182Published by: American Association for the Advancement of ScienceStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/19318 .

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'l3ook RKeviews _10

FROM DEMONS TO DRUGS

Miracles from .Microbes. Samuel Epstein and Beryl Williams. 155 pp. $2.00. Rutgers Univr. Press. New Brunswick. 1946.

Ti-is book was reviewed during the hours of 11:00 P.M. to 1:30 A.M. because the reviewer has that habit of so many people

namely, rea(ling in bed-but of more momentary interest is the fact that the book was so interesting that it was read from cover to cover all in one reclining.

A foreword by Major General Norman T. Kirk points out the dyinamic nature of science and leaves one with the happy thought that out of a horrible war came some advances in medicine which resulted in at least a lower rate of mortality; and thanks to penicillin many of our boys are alive today who could not have survived without the developments in the fields of antibiotics.

Chapter I, F'rom Devils to Drugs, is a splendid review of medical treatment from medieval times to present-day antibiotics -one sees the panorama of the fifth century B.c. Hippocrates, the establishment of a medical school by Alexander the Great, the anatomical studies of Galen, the era of diagnosis but no cure, the philosophy of nature as the ideal chemist, van Leeuwen- hoek's new world with the microscope, Jenner's smallpox vaccine, the Pasteur treatment, Koch's proof of the multipli- cation of bacteria, and Ehrlich's studies on dyes which were specific for certain bacteria. Thus was the world introduced to chemo- therapy as a method of treatment of diseases.

Chapter II, A Problem in Isolation,

relates the early trials and tribulations in connection with the phenomenon of anti- biosis; pyocanase, pyocyanin, penicillic acid, fumigatim, and other substances were recognized. This was the period of train- ing of men for research in a specialized field.

Chapter III is devoted to tyrothricin and the work of Dubos and others on this antibiotic. Unfortunately, this drug, iso- lated from Bacilli brevis, dissolves red blood cells, thus limiting its potential use. So- lutions of tyrothricin injected into udders of cows infected with mastitis resulted in rapid cures.

So much has been written regarding peni- cillin that this subject is treated rather briefly in Chapter IV. The headaches of plant construction and the development of submerged fermnentation technique are passed over in a few sentences, though this was the crux of industrial production. No mention is made of the research sponsored by' the Office of Production Research and Development which had so much to do with the modern processes. On page 123 the authors state that "penicillin is still pre- pared for a grateful world by infinitesimal bacteria enlisted in the battle against their pathogenic brothers." On the previous page penicillin comes from mold.

Chapter V brings one up to date regarding streptomycin, which was discovered by Waksman and Schatz in 1943. This drug, which appears to be effective against many gram-negative organisms, is being tested against tuberculosis, leprosy, typhoid fever, Freidlander infections, tularemia influenzal meningitis, undulant fever, and other dis- eases. Production is increasing rapidly, and clinical evaluation will follow.

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182 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

The authors leave one with the im- pression that as each new form of plant life developed it must carry with it ame- chanism for preventing the lower forms of life from eating it up. If so, the continued search for cures for infantile paralysis and the common cold may be discovered before long.

ALBERT L. ELDER

Corn Products Refining Co. Argo, Ill.

THE CASE OF THE MISSING BODY

The Lost Americans. Frank C. Hibben. 196 pp. Illus. $2.50. Crowell. New York. 1946.

TEis is an entertainingly written and, one might as well add, exasperating little book. It will be read and enjoyed by that section of the public which is fond of action and mystery and which believes that the most dramatic explanation of strange events must always be the true one. Much of the action recorded here is true, the drama real. This is the story of the strangest chapter in American prehistory. It is the account of our discovery of the men who saw the last of the giant mammalian world of the Americani Pleistocene and who hunted its dying fauna to extinction. There are few more fascinating stories in the whole realm of archeology and few who can write about them with greater facility than Dr. Hibben. Trhat is why I said that the book is exasper- ating-exasperating at least to a hardened old student of the subject like myself. It is too f acile and a little too nimble here and there with its manipulation of fact.

At the very beginning The Lost Americans is marred by an unfortunately worded acknowledgment, the effect of which is a somewhat rude dismissal of a number of workers, by no means obscure or insignifi- cant, who have contributed to the solution of human antiquity on this continent. Dr. Hibben says:

The author wishes to acknowv7ledge the help and inspiration of the two other scientists in the United States who have concerned themselves with the problems of the earliest Americans-the late Edgar B. Howard, of the University Museum, University of Pennsylvania; and Dr. Frank H. H. Roberts, Jr., of the Bureau of American Ethnology [italics mine].

It is entirely appropriate that the signifi- cant contributions of the late Edgar Howard and of F. H. H. Roberts, Jr., should be specifically noted, but in the three words I have italicized there is an insinuation that Hibben and the two scholars mentioned have been the only ones to concern them- selves with this subject. In later pages, Hibben himself fails to be consistent on this matter, since he mentions Bryan the geologist and certain other scientists. Yet the ill-chosen words at the opening of the book leave an unpleasant impression which is many pages in being dissipated.

One may note, also, occasional state- ments which must be challenged in the interest of the general reader. We have, for example, no slightest idea of the life habits of Castoroides olioensis which would make it possible to assert that "giant beaver built great dams across long-for- gotten rivers" (p. 161). In Hibben's dis- cussion of the extinction of the terminal Pleistocene fauna, he refers to the great bone deposits of Nebraska "where we find literally thousands of these remains to- gether. .. whole herds overcome by some common power" (p. 170). Nebraska pos- sesses probably the finest Tertiary fossil beds in the world, and maniy of these yield numerous remains. If, however, we pass to the terminal Pleistocene, which Hibben is actually talking about, I am afraid the statement above is, to say the least, exag- gerated and I say it with due recognition of the fact that bison occasionally turn up in some number, as at the Scottsbluff quarry. In fact, Ilibben himself is not consistent oln this point because back on page 90 he

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