acid. Sulfanilamide’s present usage includes treatment for yeast and bacterial
infections.
M&B 693 is sulphapyridine and was discovered in 1937 by Lionel Whitby at the
British firm May & Baker. It is Sulfanilamide linked to a pyridyl group and was able
to reduce the Neisseria meningitidis death rate by nearly eighty percent, plus it was
effective in treating infections caused by Neisseria gonorrhoeae. The most famous
patient treated with M&B 693 was Winston Churchill, for whom the antimicrobial
compound cured a bacterial pneumonia.
Taylor lamented that the amount of money spend on weapons of war and defenses
against them was so much greater that the amount of money spent on combating
infectious diseases, and I quite firmly agree with that.
14.21 “Antibiosis” by Howard Bowman, 1947
Howard H. M. Bowman (1947) said that the term symbiosis defines a partnership
between two organisms, with a subset of symbiotic partnerships represented by the
term antibiosis. Antibiosis is an association of two species in which one is harming
the other, with an example being the production of antimicrobial substances. Bowman included in this article a historical review of the discovery and developments of
penicillin (Fleming 1929) and streptomycin (Schatz et al. 1944).
Bowman explained that millions of microorganisms live in the soil and most
of these microbial organisms are supported by the wastes and debris of the bodies of
higher plants and animals that live on the earths surface. Some of the minute forms of
life that live in the soil are also dangerous enemies of the higher organisms.
Resultingly, “It is now recognized that all the higher plants and animals suffer
from the ravages of microbes such as bacteria, fungi and protozoa; and the more
highly evolved the plant or animal, the more numerous are its microbial parasites.
Many of these disease-producing agents are closely related to harmless forms which
lead independent lives in soil or water.”
This led Bowman to present the assumption that disease producing microorganisms were once non-pathogenic, but subsequently became adapted to a parasitic life
in specific hosts. The pathogenic microorganisms produce toxic substances which
injure the host until the host either succeeds in building up a resistance to the
pathogen or the host finally is killed. There also would be situations in which the
host survives the attack without killing its parasite, and the host then remains a
carrier of the pathogen. These disease-producing microorganisms naturally spread
from host to host through routes that include water, dust or excreta of the host.
Bowman surmised that microbial populations naturally present in soil will be
antagonistic and attack the pathogens. “It has been found that even the common
Rhizobium, a bacillus that forms nodules on the roots of leguminous plants, cannot
thrive outside the nodules of the roots. [Selman] Waksman found that the normal soil
microbes will quickly kill it when it is placed alone in soil. It survives only when
protected in the security of its nodules on the plants.” Bowman also mentioned that
the organism which causes Texas Cattle Fever, specifically a parasitic alveolate now
238
C. J. Hurst
infections.
M&B 693 is sulphapyridine and was discovered in 1937 by Lionel Whitby at the
British firm May & Baker. It is Sulfanilamide linked to a pyridyl group and was able
to reduce the Neisseria meningitidis death rate by nearly eighty percent, plus it was
effective in treating infections caused by Neisseria gonorrhoeae. The most famous
patient treated with M&B 693 was Winston Churchill, for whom the antimicrobial
compound cured a bacterial pneumonia.
Taylor lamented that the amount of money spend on weapons of war and defenses
against them was so much greater that the amount of money spent on combating
infectious diseases, and I quite firmly agree with that.
14.21 “Antibiosis” by Howard Bowman, 1947
Howard H. M. Bowman (1947) said that the term symbiosis defines a partnership
between two organisms, with a subset of symbiotic partnerships represented by the
term antibiosis. Antibiosis is an association of two species in which one is harming
the other, with an example being the production of antimicrobial substances. Bowman included in this article a historical review of the discovery and developments of
penicillin (Fleming 1929) and streptomycin (Schatz et al. 1944).
Bowman explained that millions of microorganisms live in the soil and most
of these microbial organisms are supported by the wastes and debris of the bodies of
higher plants and animals that live on the earths surface. Some of the minute forms of
life that live in the soil are also dangerous enemies of the higher organisms.
Resultingly, “It is now recognized that all the higher plants and animals suffer
from the ravages of microbes such as bacteria, fungi and protozoa; and the more
highly evolved the plant or animal, the more numerous are its microbial parasites.
Many of these disease-producing agents are closely related to harmless forms which
lead independent lives in soil or water.”
This led Bowman to present the assumption that disease producing microorganisms were once non-pathogenic, but subsequently became adapted to a parasitic life
in specific hosts. The pathogenic microorganisms produce toxic substances which
injure the host until the host either succeeds in building up a resistance to the
pathogen or the host finally is killed. There also would be situations in which the
host survives the attack without killing its parasite, and the host then remains a
carrier of the pathogen. These disease-producing microorganisms naturally spread
from host to host through routes that include water, dust or excreta of the host.
Bowman surmised that microbial populations naturally present in soil will be
antagonistic and attack the pathogens. “It has been found that even the common
Rhizobium, a bacillus that forms nodules on the roots of leguminous plants, cannot
thrive outside the nodules of the roots. [Selman] Waksman found that the normal soil
microbes will quickly kill it when it is placed alone in soil. It survives only when
protected in the security of its nodules on the plants.” Bowman also mentioned that
the organism which causes Texas Cattle Fever, specifically a parasitic alveolate now
238
C. J. Hurst