Effect of Streptomycin and Other Antibiotic Substances upon Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Related Organisms.

The cure for tuberculosis. The rare first edition of the paper announcing the new antibiotic streptomycin as a potential cure for tuberculosis, the journal issue bound as a complete volume.

The antibacterial properties of penicillin had been confirmed in 1928, but it wasn't until the late 1930s that a method of mass production made medical use possible. Selman Waksman (1888-1973), a soil microbiologist at Rutgers, immediately saw the antibiotic potential of the organisms he studied, and beginning in 1937 he initiated a meticulous research program to isolate and test candidate drugs.

'Between 1940 and 1952, his lab isolated more than 10 antibiotics produced by actinomycetes, a group of soil organisms capable of inhibiting the growth of bacteria and fungi. Of these, streptomycin was the most extraordinary', because of its relative lack of toxicity to humans and its powerful effect on tuberculosis, one of the most deadly diseases in all of human history (Mistiaen, 'Time and the Great Healer', the Guardian, November 2, 2002).

It was Waksman's graduate student Albert Schatz who did most of the work on tuberculosis and discovered streptomycin's promise, and he is listed as the first author of this paper. But once the substance was confirmed to be a miracle drug he was pushed out of the spotlight and convinced to sign away his financial rights in the discovery. Waksman was feted as a hero in international publicity and became the sole recipient of the Nobel Prize in 1952, a event described as 'one of the worst' mistakes in the history of the award (Mistiaen).

First edition, volume 57 complete, being 3 numbers bound in 1; tall 4to (24.5 x 16.5 cm); illustrations and diagrams throughout, contents fresh; contemporary burgundy library buckram, titles to spine gilt, volume title and original blue wrappers for each number bound in, library bookplates and pencilled inscriptions, spine and edges of boards faded, cloth rubbed and a little marked, very good condition.