The Demon Under the Microscope: From Battlefield Hospitals to Nazi Labs, One Doctor's Heroic Search for the World's First Miracle Drug 
asked by markymark on November 21, 2006 10:45 PM
The Nazis discovered it. The Allies won the war with it. It conquered diseases, changed laws, and single-handedly launched the era of antibiotics. This incredible discovery was sulfa, the first antibiotic. In The Demon Under the Microscope, Thomas Hager chronicles the dramatic history of the drug that shaped modern medicine.
Sulfa saved millions of lives—among them those of Winston Churchill and Franklin Delano Roosevelt Jr.—but its real effects are even more far reaching. Sulfa changed the way new drugs were developed, approved, and sold; transformed the way doctors treated patients; and ushered in the era of modern medicine. The very concept that chemicals created in a lab could cure disease revolutionized medicine, taking it from the treatment of symptoms and discomfort to the eradication of the root cause of illness.
A strange and colorful story, The Demon Under the Microscope illuminates the vivid characters, corporate strategy, individual idealism, careful planning, lucky breaks, cynicism, heroism, greed, hard work, and the central (though mistaken) idea that brought sulfa to the world. This is a fascinating scientific tale with all the excitement and intrigue of a great suspense novel.
For thousands of years, humans had sought medicines with which they could defeat contagion, and they had slowly, painstakingly, won a few battles: some vaccines to ward off disease, a handful of antitoxins. A drug or two was available that could stop parasitic diseases once they hit, tropical maladies like malaria and sleeping sickness. But the great killers of Europe, North America, and most of Asia—pneumonia, plague, tuberculosis, diphtheria, cholera, meningitis—were caused not by parasites but by bacteria, much smaller, far different microorganisms. By 1931, nothing on earth could stop a bacterial infection once it started. . . .
But all that was about to change. . . . —from The Demon Under the Microscope
Sulfa saved millions of lives—among them those of Winston Churchill and Franklin Delano Roosevelt Jr.—but its real effects are even more far reaching. Sulfa changed the way new drugs were developed, approved, and sold; transformed the way doctors treated patients; and ushered in the era of modern medicine. The very concept that chemicals created in a lab could cure disease revolutionized medicine, taking it from the treatment of symptoms and discomfort to the eradication of the root cause of illness.
A strange and colorful story, The Demon Under the Microscope illuminates the vivid characters, corporate strategy, individual idealism, careful planning, lucky breaks, cynicism, heroism, greed, hard work, and the central (though mistaken) idea that brought sulfa to the world. This is a fascinating scientific tale with all the excitement and intrigue of a great suspense novel.
For thousands of years, humans had sought medicines with which they could defeat contagion, and they had slowly, painstakingly, won a few battles: some vaccines to ward off disease, a handful of antitoxins. A drug or two was available that could stop parasitic diseases once they hit, tropical maladies like malaria and sleeping sickness. But the great killers of Europe, North America, and most of Asia—pneumonia, plague, tuberculosis, diphtheria, cholera, meningitis—were caused not by parasites but by bacteria, much smaller, far different microorganisms. By 1931, nothing on earth could stop a bacterial infection once it started. . . .
But all that was about to change. . . . —from The Demon Under the Microscope
Reviews
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In a time when Bird Flu, AIDS, Ebola, Marberg and God-only-knows what other viruses threaten life today, its easy to forget that not too long ago bacteria posed an even greater menace. Anyone with as little as a cut or a scrape, nevermind battlefield wound, could fall victim to infection any viriety of which could become life ending.
Medical Science at the time was, in the author's words, no more effective than "a medicine man with a mask and bone rattle." This book is the fascinating, and little known story of those who changed all of this. Thomas Hager
has so painstakingly researched every minute detail of the story and assembled a richly informing narrative. Yet, the story he tells moves like a well writen novel, keeping the reader fastened to the end. My only regret is that the publisher did not see fit to include photographs of places and persons mentioned. Nevertheless, for anyone like myself, who enjoys reading science and history at its best, you won't be dissapointed.
Medical Science at the time was, in the author's words, no more effective than "a medicine man with a mask and bone rattle." This book is the fascinating, and little known story of those who changed all of this. Thomas Hager
has so painstakingly researched every minute detail of the story and assembled a richly informing narrative. Yet, the story he tells moves like a well writen novel, keeping the reader fastened to the end. My only regret is that the publisher did not see fit to include photographs of places and persons mentioned. Nevertheless, for anyone like myself, who enjoys reading science and history at its best, you won't be dissapointed.
reviewed by avi on November 23, 2006 12:37 PM
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On behalf of most of the Moms I know, I will admit that I have taken a child to the doctor with a sore throat and said the following out loud, "Well, I kind of hope it's strep so they can just put him/her on an antibiotic and he/she will be able to go back to school in a day or so." Well, when our grandparents were small children...people DIED from strep! In large numbers! Something like 1 in 4 women who gave birth in certain hospitals died from something called "childbed fever". More people in WWI died from infection than from war wounds. In WW1, Gonorrhea (the clap) was second only to the flu as a cause of disability and absence from duty.
This was in a time when people had electricity, cars, telephones and movies...but they could not cure easily transmittable diseases from which people died!
The simple solution to these infections and diseases was a class of drugs using Sulfa as the active ingredient. The story of how these drugs were discovered, developed, tested and used spans several decades and countries and had far-reaching effects on our current system of drug research and testing. At the beginning of the Sulfa era, people were still buying "patent medicines" which were unproven at best and dangerous or fatal at worst. The country's food and drug laws had no teeth...a perfect example being when a drug was found to have killed almost 100 people, the company which produced it could not be tried for negligence or murder, but could be tried for mislabeling!
The story is fascinating. The "characters" involved are as complex, heroic and villainous as characters in fiction. And the narrative moves along at a clip that fiction readers can deal with.
The Demon Under the Microscope is meticulously researched without those annoying footnotes on every page. Hager instead adds a chapter entitled "Source Notes" which describes where he got the information on a chapter by chapter basis, followed by an extensive bibliography. As a non-technical reader of the book, this is much more helpful and keeps the book from being bogged down in details that would only be of interest to other researchers.
If you enjoy these kinds of historical NON-fiction The Demon Under the Microscope would definitely be a good addition to your library.
This was in a time when people had electricity, cars, telephones and movies...but they could not cure easily transmittable diseases from which people died!
The simple solution to these infections and diseases was a class of drugs using Sulfa as the active ingredient. The story of how these drugs were discovered, developed, tested and used spans several decades and countries and had far-reaching effects on our current system of drug research and testing. At the beginning of the Sulfa era, people were still buying "patent medicines" which were unproven at best and dangerous or fatal at worst. The country's food and drug laws had no teeth...a perfect example being when a drug was found to have killed almost 100 people, the company which produced it could not be tried for negligence or murder, but could be tried for mislabeling!
The story is fascinating. The "characters" involved are as complex, heroic and villainous as characters in fiction. And the narrative moves along at a clip that fiction readers can deal with.
The Demon Under the Microscope is meticulously researched without those annoying footnotes on every page. Hager instead adds a chapter entitled "Source Notes" which describes where he got the information on a chapter by chapter basis, followed by an extensive bibliography. As a non-technical reader of the book, this is much more helpful and keeps the book from being bogged down in details that would only be of interest to other researchers.
If you enjoy these kinds of historical NON-fiction The Demon Under the Microscope would definitely be a good addition to your library.
reviewed by ozone on November 23, 2006 10:07 PM