Miracle Cure

Dr Wainwright is Senior Lecturer in Microbiology at the University of Sheffield, where he teaches Mycology and Environmental Microbiology. His research interests include studies of the ecology and physiology of fungi and the history of microbial antagonism and the discovery of antibiotics. He obtained his BSc in 1971 and his Ph.D in 1974, both from the University of Nottingham, and spent a short period in Canada as a National Research Council of Canada Postdoctoral Fellow before taking up his present position at Sheffield. In 1984 with a colleague, Harold Swan, he discovered records of the first clinical use of penicillin, and he is currently actively researching the neglected role of Albert Schatz in the discovery of streptomycin. He is married with a daughter aged eight and a son aged five.

• Preface ix1 Introduction 12 The Discovery of Penicillin 143 The Development of Penicillin 384 The Introduction of Penicillin into Medicine 605 Penicillin: Personalities and Conflicts 746 Penicillin after the War 847 The Road to Antibiotics 898 Streptomycin and the Conquest of Tuberculosis 1189 Antibiotics Galore! 14110 Lives of the Four Major Antibiotic Pioneers 15811 An Antibiotic Miscellany 17112 Epilogue: Some Recent Developments and Future Prospects 184Future Prospects: the End of Antibiotics? 187Further Reading 189Index 192