238 Miracles Ahead! 



lives than any other group of agents employed in the treat- 

 ment of disease." 



Dr. Paul Ehrlich, the German-Jewish genius, found that 

 germs absorbed coal-tar dyes and became visible under the 

 microscope. He hoped to discover a dye that would not only 

 color the germs but kill them. In 1910 Dr. Ehrlich perfected 

 the arsenical compound salvarsan ("606") the "magic bul- 

 let" that cures syphilis, and the first of the great modern 

 chemical agents for the war against disease. 



Two years earlier, in 1908, P. Gelmo, a young student at 

 the University of Vienna, described the preparation of a coal- 

 tar compound, sulfanilamide, in a paper for his doctor's de- 

 gree. Little more is known of this trail blazer. A year later, 

 chemists of the I.G. Farbenindustrie, German dye trust, dis- 

 covered that sulfanilamide could be united with other chemi- 

 cals to make colors exceptionally fast. This dye combined 

 strongly with the proteins in wool and silk. Some scientists 

 ventured the opinion that sulfanilamide might have an equal 

 affinity for the proteins of parasites causing disease, but little 

 was done along this line for several years. 



In 1935 Dr. Gerhard Domagk, a German pathologist, pub- 

 lished the results of experiments with prontosil, a brick-red 

 powder. Scientists in other countries soon discovered that 

 prontosil was a combination of sulfanilamide and a red dye, 

 and that sulfanilamide alone did the work. 



"The British," writes David Dietz, Scripps-Howard science 

 editor, "gave the task of testing the new drug to one of their 

 most distinguished men, Dr. Leonard Colebrook of Queen 

 Charlotte's Hospital in London. He was the leading authority 

 on childbed fever, which sets in so frequently after childbirth 

 and until then had proved fatal in one out of every four 

 cases. 



"In 1936 Dr. Colebrook treated 64 cases with the new drug 

 and saved the lives of 61 mothers. Sulfanilamide had cut the 



