Medicine - Treatment since 1900

Magic Bullets

• Koch discovered that different chemical dyes stained specific microbes
• Behring found that the body makes antitoxins that attack microbes
  
• Paul Ehrlich and his team of researchers searched for a "magic bullet" - a chemical compound that would kill the microbe causing a specific disease
• Helped by German government funding they worked for many years. They tested many compounds of Salvarson to find one to cure syphilis
• 1909 - Dr Hata joined; discovered they rejected a compound that worked (606th)
• 1932 - Gerhand Domagk developed the second magic bullet, Prontosil, which cured some types of blood poisoning
• Other scientists checking Domagk's work found that the key ingredient in Prontosil, sulphonamide, also cured Pneumonia, scarlet fever and meningitis

Penicillin

• 1920 - Alexander Fleming saw bacteria in a Petri dish was…