Book Review

Microbe Hunters — Then and now

N Engl J Med 1997; 336:1264April 24, 1997

Article

Microbe Hunters — Then and now
Edited by Hilary Koprowski and Michael B.A. Oldstone. 456 pp., illustrated. Bloomington, Ill., Medi-Ed Press, 1996. $45. ISBN: 0-936741-11-2

Paul de Kruif's Microbe Hunters, published in 1926, was already 34 years old in 1960, yet its stirring tales of discovery and heroism by the pioneers of microbiology provoked the imagination of at least one budding young microbiologist and influenced the career choices of many senior scientists practicing today. Much has happened in microbiology since 1926. At least one disease — smallpox — has been eradicated, and another — poliomyelitis — is a candidate to follow. “New” infectious agents, such as the human immunodeficiency virus and helicobacter, have appeared as if to take their place. The viral causes of many “old” diseases, such as hepatitis, have been identified, cloned, and sequenced, allowing the development of effective vaccines. Devastating bacterial diseases, such as tuberculosis, have been brought under control with antibiotics, only to reemerge in resistant forms to plague us again. The tools of molecular biology have given us a more profound understanding of the workings of microbes than anyone could have imagined. All these advances have been thoroughly chronicled individually and in small groups, but there has been little effort to take de Kruif's approach and recall the broad sweep of discovery and discoverers in a more modern history of microbiology.

The editors of Microbe Hunters — Then and Now boldly attempt to fill this void with histories of the discoveries of and efforts to control many of the currently important infectious diseases. Although the stated goals of this book resemble those of the original, the approach is quite different. Instead of having a single author, this book has more than 40 authors, including some of the best-known names in their respective fields. Instead of a sole focus on their history, most of the 19 topics covered are divided into pairs of chapters, each introduced by a brief overview or vignette. The first chapter of each pair discusses some historical aspect of the topic, including the ancient history of the disease, the discovery of the infectious agent, and the development of vaccines, as appropriate. The second chapter reviews current information on the topic, such as molecular pathogenesis, immunity, or replication. Not surprisingly, given the interests of the editors, the emphasis is on viruses, and most of the leading fatal viral diseases in humans are covered in 11 sections. Less well represented are bacterial diseases, with only tuberculosis, Lyme disease, helicobacter, and pneumococcus covered, and in only one chapter each. A few more examples of bacterial diseases, both old (such as cholera) and new (legionella infection comes to mind), would have made for a more well-rounded story. There is also a section on plant viruses, a chapter on prion diseases, and a chapter on mucosal immunity.

Most of the chapters are reasonably brief and generally readable. Apparently, they were not heavily edited, since there is considerable variation in tone, style, and depth from one to the next. The best of them are in the spirit of the original; an example is Monath's “Milestones in the Conquest of Yellow Fever,” a stirring account of adventure, discovery, and the conquest of bureaucracy, spiced with the ultimate sacrifice of self-experimentation. Other historical chapters are more personal accounts of the authors' own contributions. Still others were apparently written by senior researchers with a good sense of history but less connection to the current state of research, resulting in chapters that may have a certain antique charm for the expert but are likely to be confusing for the novice. For example, the history of viral hepatitis devotes only two sentences to hepatitis C virus, despite its great importance as a pathogen in some parts of the world, and the history of retroviruses contains an outdated nomenclature and taxonomy and does not extend much past 1980.

The chapters on specialized topics vary considerably in their approaches, from a highly detailed review with primary data to an extension of the history presented in the preceding chapter. The more specialized chapters do not succeed as well as the ones that are primarily historical, perhaps because of their brevity as compared with more comprehensive works, such as the recently revised Fields Virology (edited by Bernard N. Fields, David M. Knipe, and Peter M. Howley, with Robert M. Chanock. 3rd ed. New York: Raven Press, 1996).

The glimpses into microbiologic history provided in this book will be of interest and value to those in the field but will be difficult reading for those not already familiar with microbes. The book is unlikely to stir the imagination of high-school students — much less affect their career choices.

John M. Coffin, Ph.D.
Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, MA 02111