Book Log 2006 #65: The Demon Under the Microscope by Thomas Hager

This is a very interesting history of the discovery and use of sulfa drugs, the first antibiotic drugs. The description is a little dramatic - they weren't quite discovered by the Nazis - but is spot on in the way sulfa dramatically changed the prospects of surviving infection. What was most interesting to me is what the description doesn't really mention - that sulfa was already a well-known and widely available substance at the time its antibiotic properties were discovered.

I think that common nature led to the one drawback to the book: there's almost no discussion as to where sulfa came from. It appears in the book as this stuff that chemists tried in due course as they tested the efficacy of a wide array of compounds. I'd have liked a bit more on how sulfa got to that point.

In any case, it's a very good medical/scientific history, with a healthy dose of social and legal history, given the wide range of changes sulfa caused. It's even a cautionary tale on the incomplete and over-use of antibiotics, given how quickly sulfa fell from use. Recommended.