Microbe Hunters. Paul DeKruif.

Microbe Hunters
Paul DeKruif
New York: Pocket Books. 1926.

Why read it? The stories in this book are about known and unknown heroes of humanity. They are distinct personalities. Sometimes they doggedly worked to achieve their goals and sometimes they achieved them by accident. Paul DeKruif, the author of these biographies of scientists, has an engaging style of writing. Your eyes will fly over the pages of this book. These scientists struggled to achieve victory over disease, a victory that today we take for granted. You will also learn from this history of science that science is not a neat, orderly process.

From the back cover: "These absorbing stories tell the adventures of fourteen scientists exploring a world unseen by the naked eye. They were like other men; they had curiosity; they groped, sometimes failed. They found truth; they fought death. A few were ambushed by the invisible assassins they tried to trap. They were pioneers in the struggle of mankind to conquer its most dreaded enemies--disease-carrying microbes. The zeal and fervor of science relentlessly drove them in their search for the means to end human suffering The failures and successes of these men read like a romance or drama and as though the author knew each one intimately."

Paul DeKruif: "I love these microbe hunters, from old Antony Leeuwenhoek to Paul Ehrlich, not especially for the discoveries they have made nor for the boons they have brought mankind--I love them for the men they were."

Paul Ehrlich: "For seven years of misfortune I had one moment of good luck"