Wonder Drugs

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Only in the past hundred years have doctors and scientists learned the real causes of disease. Although the "medicine man" has been an important and often powerful member of the community since earliest historical times, his drugs have worked on the symptoms rather than the causes of human ills. In the middle of the last century, the French scientist Louis Pasteur announced the theory that fermentation is caused by microscopic organisms called bacteria. After long controversy, the reality of bacteria was established, and various kind of these one-celled creatures, which have both animal and vegetable characteristics, were found to be responsible not only for fermentation and decay but also for many of the more serious human and animal diseases.

What Is a Specific?

It has long been recognized that most drugs in common use do not attack the cause of disease directly, but improve the general condition of the body, or relieve immediate symptoms, thereby helping the body itself to fight the cause. Physicians have long searched for specifics, drugs that would directly attack the bacteria or viruses that cause disease. In the long history of medicine up to 1910, it may be said that only one such specific was discovered-quinine for the treatment of malarial fever.

The discovery of bacteria spurred renewed search for specifics. A new science called chemotherapy came into being the treatment of disease with chemical compounds. The first success of this science was achieved by Dr. Paul Ehrlich in 1910. Iodine was known to be a specific against certain types of bacteria, and after trying 606 compounds of iodine Ehrlich discovered "salvarsan," also called "606," a compound that can be administered without injury to the patient. Salvarsan is a specific against sleeping sickness and other siseases.

just before and during World War 2, the spectacular advance of chemotherapy was marked by the release for general use of three new wonder frugs the sulfonamides, penicillin, and streptomycin.