The beldams of yesteryear who gave onions and garlic to stave off typhus, let pennies grow green in the cellar for use on cuts, and put moldy bread on wounds had the right idea, though their practice was often fatal. For, some of their remedies contained antibiotics,* the natural bacteria-fighting substances produced by living organisms.
Antibiotics, of which penicillin (rhymes with "all God's chillun") is the most famed, are now the objects of the most exciting search in all bacteriology. In dozens of laboratories, experts are looking for antibiotics to fight the many...