Experiment Eleven

by Peter Pringle

  178 to show his data Corwin Hinshaw to Dr. and Mrs. Howard A. Anderson, September 19, 1989, AS personal archive.

  181 as the discoverer Einar Hammersten, “Betankande Angaende, Elizabeth Bugie, Karl Folkers, Albert Schatz, Selman Abraham Waksman, och Oscar Wintersteiner,” Nobel Archives, August 21, 1952, 10, AS personal archive.

  20. “A Dog Yapping at the Heels of a Great World Figure”

  182 citation was specific George Axelsson, “Waksman Wins Nobel Prize for Streptomycin Discovery,” New York Times, October 24, 1952.

  183 “immigrant boy” Selman Waksman, My Life with the Microbes (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1954), 305.

  183 “bedlam” Waksman, My Life, 305.

  183 New York Times Axelsson, “Waksman Wins Nobel Prize.”

  183 “share in the honor” “Nobel Prize for Waksman,” Philadelphia Inquirer, October 26, 1952.

  183 “entity as a human being” Albert Schatz, interview by Milton Wainwright, 1989, MW, February 18, 1989.

  184 “amazement” Elmer Reinthaler to Göran Liljestrand, October 29, 1952, AS, box 5, 6.

  184 “rightful share” Albert Schatz “On the award of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for 1952,” November 1952, MW.

  185 “ungrateful, spoiled, immature child” Albert Sabin to Elmer Reinthaler, November 10, 1952, AS and MW.

  185 “junior person” Maurice Stacey to Elmer Reinthaler, November 24, 1952, AS and MW.

  186 “ample justification” C. B. van Niel to Kurt Stern, November 17, 1952, AS and MW.

  186 “disappointed” William Feldman to Albert Schatz, November 12, 1952, AS personal archive.

  186 “distinction is extremely important” William Feldman to Kurt Stern, November 19, 1952, AS.

  187 “generally regretted” Hilding Bergstrand and Göran Liljestrand to Elmer Reinthaler, November 14, 1952, AS, box 5.

  187 “low attempt by little men” J. C. Hoogerhide to Selman Waksman, November 15, 1942, SAW, box 14, 9.

  188 advised strongly against any litigation Russell Watson to Selman Waksman, November 21, 1952, SAW, box 14, 9.

  188 “long-term rational effort” Stuart Mudd to Göran Liljestrand, November 11, 1952, AS, box 5.

  189 “deserves no greater share” Selman Waksman to Stuart Mudd, November 14, 1952, SAW, box 14, 9.

  189 “I have to reject this attack” Arvid Wallgren to Selman Waksman, November 6, 1952, LOC.

  190 “draw your own conclusions” Selman Waksman to Arvid Wallgren, November 11, 1952, AS, box 5.

  190 Wallgren was happy Arvid Wallgren to Selman Waksman, November 19, 1952, LOC.

  190 “self-conscious, tight-lipped” Newsweek, science section, December 15, 1952.

  191 “dog yapping at the heels” Russell Watson to Lewis Webster Jones, January 29, 1953, SAW, box 14, 9.

  191 “mimosa and a porcupine” Kurt Stern to Albert Schatz, November 21, 1952, AS, box 5, 2. Dr. Arnold Berliner was the famous editor of the German Die Naturwissenschaften, and his struggle to find well-written, clear, and succinct articles by scientists led him to say that a scientific author should be a cross between a mimosa and a porcupine.

  192 “By what standards of morality” Albert Schatz to Gustav VI, December 6, 1952, AS.

  192 “ingenious, systematic and successful studies” Arvid Wallgren, Presentation Speech, Stockholm, December 10, 1952, accessed at http://www.nobel prize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1952/pres.html.

  192 “10,000 different soil microbes” Hubert Lechevalier to Byron Waksman, May 26, 1981, HL. The figures were “Waksmanesque.” Douglas Eveleigh, author interviews. 2008, 9, 11.

  193 That is different Hubert Lechevalier to Boyd Woodruff, October 19, 1981. See also R. Bentley and J. W. Bennett, “What Is an Antibiotic? Revisited,” Advances in Applied Microbiology 52 (2003): 303–31. Toward the end of his life Waksman modified his claim, saying he had been the first to “redefine” the word “antibiotic.” Selman Waksman, letter to the editor, undated, but sent when he was director of the Rutgers Institute of Microbiology (1954–58), Actinomycetologica 24, no. 2, 2010.

  193 “summarized briefly” Selman Waksman, “Streptomycin: Background, Isolation, Properties and Utilization,” lecture, Stockholm, December 12, 1952, www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/... /1952/waksman=lecture.

  193 “commanded me to bring” C. F. Palmstierna to Albert Schatz, January 5, 1953, AS.

  21. The Drug Harvest

  195 “IBM machine” Dana Thomas, “Broader Spectrum, the Wonder Drugs Are Finding New Uses in Commerce and Industry,” Barron’s, November 5, 1956, 3.

  196 “limitations” William Feldman and H. Corwin Hinshaw, “Streptomycin: A Valuable Anti-Tuberculosis Agent,” British Medical Journal, January 17, 1948, 91.

  196 ringing sound Milton Wainwright, Miracle Cure (Oxford, UK: Basil Blackwell, 1990), 138.

  196 “most serious obstacles” Feldman and Hinshaw, “Streptomycin.” Also see Davies, “Where Have All,” 287–90.

  196 Jörgen Lehmann Frank Ryan, Tuberculosis: The Greatest Story Never Told (Bromsgrove, UK: Swift, 1992), 144–47 and 242–47.

  197 isoniazid Ryan, Tuberculosis, 349–50 and 353–63.

  198 “damnable disease” William Feldman to Selman Waksman, October 28, 1949, LOC, box 1.

  198 sought exclusive patents Federal Trade Commission, Economic Report on Antibiotics Manufacture (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1958), 228.

  198 “If you want to lose your shirt” John McKeen in Business Week, March 26, 1950, 26.

  198 price had dropped Business Week, March 25, 1950, 26.

  199 “pretence of invention” William Kingston, “Antibiotics, Invention and Innovation,” Research Policy 29 (2000): 697.

  200 the five companies See Christopher Harrison, The Politics of the International Pricing of Prescription Drugs (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2004).

  200 one hundred million dollars United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, June 16, 1966, 363 F. 2d 757, 4 line 20.

  201 Half a century later Christopher Scott Harrison, The Politics of the International Pricing of Prescription Drugs, 47.

  201 more than 50 percent “Overview of the U.S. Pharmaceutical Industry: The Competitive Status of the U.S. Pharmaceutical Industry,” National Academy of Sciences (1983): 7, accessed at http://www.nap.edu/openbook/030903969/hmtl/7.

  201 more than five thousand S. T. Williams and J. C. Vickers, “The Ecology of Antibiotic Production,” Microbial Ecology 12 (1986): 43–52.

  201 so-called integrated drug company Peter Temin, “Technology, Regulation and Market Structure in the Modern Pharmaceutical Industry,” Bell Journal of Economics 10, no. 2 (1979): 43.

  201 advertisement pages Federal Trade Commission, Economic Report, 13.

  22. The Master’s Memoir

  202 fourth publishing opportunity Three books written, edited, or supervised, by Waksman had been published to date: Samuel Epstein and Beryl Williams, Miracles from Microbes: The Road to Streptomycin (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1946); Selman Waksman, Microbial Antagonisms and Antibiotic Substances (New York: Commonwealth Fund, 1945 and 1947 eds.); and Selman Waksman, ed., Streptomycin: Nature and Practical Applications (Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins, 1949).

  202 “What are you trying to prove” Russell Watson to Selman Waksman, February 10, 1954, SAW, box 14, 6.

  203 “This culture was found” Selman Waksman, My Life with the Microbes (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1954), 281.

  203 “fingers of my hand” Waksman, My Life, 203.

  204 “To name only a few” Waksman, My Life, 219.

  204 parable of the sick chicken Selman A. Waksman, The Conquest of Tuberculosis (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1964), 115–18.

  23. The Copied Notebooks

  205 recorded on world-history Web sites http://www.historyorb.com.

  205 “He Turned Down Millions” A. E. Hotchner, “He Turned Down Millions,” This Week, May 30, 1954, 11.


  206 “unique in the discovery” George Griffenhagen to Selman Waksman, April 16, 1953, SA, Record Unit 7091, Series 5.

  207 “How about notebook pages, etc?” Selman Waksman to George Griffenhagen, April 17, 1953, SA, Record Unit 7091, series 5.

  207 “original notes books” George Griffenhagen to Selman Waksman, April 20, 1953, SA, Record Unit 7091, series 5.

  207 “comprise my various notes” Selman Waksman to George Griffenhagen, April 23, 1953, SA, Record Unit 7091, series 5.

  207 “the most significant notebook” George Griffenhagen to Selman Waksman, April 28, 1953, SA, Record Unit 7091, series 5.

  208 “re-copied these experiments” Selman Waksman to George Griffenhagen, May 5, 1953, SA, Record Unit 7091, series 5.

  208 a four-page summary Selman Waksman, “Remarks on three of his notebooks containing data on the antagonistic properties of microorganisms and production of antibiotic substances which led to the isolation of streptomycin,” May 1, 1953, SA, Record Unit 7091, series 5.

  209 “four original experiments” “Historic Hand-written Notes ...” Rutgers News Service, July 1, 1953.

  209 “Four pages” “Smithsonian Gets Waksman Articles,” New York Times, July 4, 1953.

  PART V: THE RESTORATION

  24. Wilderness Years

  213 “devotion to science” “Ten Outstanding Young Men,” United States Junior Chamber of Commerce awards ceremony, Seattle, January 23, 1954, SAW, box 14, 48.

  213 under the headline Maura Devlin, “Schatz, Streptomycin Discoverer, Is Honored,” Bergen Evening Record, January 14, 1954.

  213 “gross exaggeration” Wallace Moreland to United States Junior Chamber of Commerce judges, telegram, January 1953, SAW, box 14, 8.

  213 “wide open door” Russell Watson to Selman Waksman, February 10, 1954, box 14, 6.

  214 literally “loved to do” Albert Schatz to Milton Wainwright, undated, MW.

  214 copper mosses Albert Schatz, “Copper Mosses: Speculations on the Ecology and Photosynthesis of the Copper Mosses,” Bryologist 58 (June 1955).

  214 “offer was gone” Vivian Schatz, author interview, November 8, 2008.

  215 “intellectualize” Albert Schatz to Milton Wainwright, undated, 1989, MW.

  215 challenged the fertilizer companies Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird, Secrets of the Soil (New York: Harper and Row, 1989), 116.

  215 celery farm Vivian Schatz, author interview, November 8, 2008. Also see Albert Schatz to Doris Jones, March 21, 1951, MW.

  216 William Wightman, a lecturer in the history The Growth of Scientific Ideas (Edinburgh and London: Oliver and Boyd, 1950).

  216 “a double act of folly” William Wightman to Dr. J. J. Martin, June 5, 1955, AS.

  216 “no better in these matters” W. I. B. Beveridge to Dr. J. J. Martin, April 14, 1955, AS personal archive.

  216 “collaborators” W. I. B. Beveridge, The Art of Scientific Investigation: An Entirely Fresh Approach to the Intellectual Adventure of Scientific Research (New York: Vintage Books, 1957), 195.

  217 “had to keep that quiet” Vivian Schatz, author interview, November 8, 2008. Albert Schatz was elected an Academic Member of the University of Chile, but resigned in 1973 after the assassination of the socialist President Salvador Allende and Chile’s takeover in a coup by the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. “My self-respect and sense of human decency compel me to submit my resignation,” he wrote. Albert Schatz to Raúl Bazan, December 23, 1973, AS.

  218 blistering attack Albert Schatz, “Some Personal Reflections on the Discovery of Streptomycin,” Pakistan Dental Review 15, no. 4 (1965): 125–34.

  219 “unfortunate” “Great Boon, Sad Story,” editorial, Passaic Herald-News, November 2, 1965.

  219 eight-page article S. A. Waksman, “A Quarter Century of the Antibiotic Era,” Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (1965): 1–19.

  219 forty-eight “selected” scientific articles Scientific Contributions of S. A. Waksman: Selected Articles Published in Honor of His 80th Birthday, July 22, 1968, ed. H. Boyd Woodruff (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1969).

  220 included Waksman’s acceptance speech Boyd Woodruff, author interview, September 21, 2011.

  220 “principal discoverer” “Selman A. Waksman, Nobel Prizewinner, Dies,” New York Times, August 17, 1973, 1.

  221 half a day Boyd Woodruff to Hubert Lechevalier, October 28, 1981, HL.

  221 “strictly a manager of research” Hubert Lechevalier to Boyd Woodruff, October 19, 1981, HL.

  221 “really interested him” Hubert Lechevalier to Boyd Woodruff, November 4, 1981, HL.

  221 “systematic development” Roland Hotchkiss, “Selman Abraham Waksman, July 22, 1888–August 16, 1973,” Biographical Memoirs, The National Academy Press 83 (2003): 321–39.

  221 “really important discovery” Bernard Davis, “Two Perspectives on René Dubos, and on Antibiotic Actions,” in Carol Moberg and Zanvil Cohn, eds., Launching the Antibiotic Era: Personal Accounts of the Discovery and Use of the First Antibiotics (New York: The Rockefeller University Press, 1990), 72.

  221 most concise, comparative Hubert Lechevalier, “The Search for Antibiotics at Rutgers University,” in The History of Antibiotics: A Symposium, ed. John Parascandola (Madison, WI: American Institute of the History of Pharmacy, 1980), 116.

  25. The English Scientist

  223 young British lecturer Milton Wainwright, author interview, January 27, 2009.

  223 “major, if largely overlooked scandal” Milton Wainwright, “Selman A. Waksman and the Streptomycin Controversy,” Society for General Microbiology Quarterly 15, no. 4 (1988): 90–92.

  223 former student Hubert Lechevalier to Albert Schatz, December 24, 1992, AS.

  224 “stopped long ago” Albert Schatz to Doris Jones, July 25, 1983, AS.

  224 recorded their conversation Albert Schatz interviewed by Milton Wainwright, February 18, 1989.

  227 “make peace with” Albert Schatz to Milton Wainwright, December 18, 1989, MW.

  227 first popular account Milton Wainwright, Miracle Cure: The Story of Penicillin and the Golden Age of Antibiotics (Oxford, UK: Basil Blackwell, 1990).

  227 “all the more tragic” Wainwright, Miracle Cure, 137.

  227 “met with a blanket” Milton Wainwright, joint interview with Albert Schatz by Jay Ingram, Quirks and Quarks, CBC, October 13, 1990.

  26. A Medal

  228 three-page article Marguerite Smolen, “A Nobel Quest,” Rutgers Magazine, Winter 1992, 43–45.

  228 Wainwright’s two articles Society for General Microbiology Quarterly 15, no. 4 (1988) and “Streptomycin: Discovery and Resultant Controversy,” History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 13 (1991): 97–124.

  228 a new book Frank Ryan, Tuberculosis: The Greatest Story Never Told (Bromsgrove, UK: Swift, 1992), 209–23.

  228 three letters Albert Schatz, letter to the editor, Rutgers Magazine, February 4, 5, and 6, 1993, AS.

  229 “errors and omissions” Lori Chambers to Albert Schatz, February 23, 1992, AS.

  229 Smithsonian Ken Chowder, “How TB Survived Its Own Death to Confront Us,” Smithsonian, November 1992, 180–94.

  229 “complete distortion” Albert Schatz to Don Moser, editor, Smithsonian, December 10, 1992 (not published), AS.

  229 Doris Jones also wrote Doris Jones, letter to the editor, Smithsonian, January 12, 1993, AS.

  229 in a letter Douglas Eveleigh, letter to editor, Smithsonian, January 1993.

  230 “At first he wouldn’t go” Vivian Schatz, author interview, November 8, 2008.

  230 “Let’s get this over with” Vivian Schatz, author interview, November 8, 2008.

  230 flyer for the lecture Biotechnology Club of Cook College, flyer, April 22, 1993, AS.

  230 “It’s amazing” Albert Schatz, “A Lifetime of Research” transcript, April 22, 1993, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, AS personal archive.

  230 “We got a kick out of that” Vivian Schatz, author in
terview, November 8, 2008.

  230 “worldwide impact” Francis Lawrence, Rutgers Medal ceremony, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, April 28, 1994.

  230 one local headline “Overlooked Pioneer Finally Gets His Due,” North Jersey Herald & News, April 29, 1994.

  230 receives overdue honors Jeannine DeFoe, The Daily Targum, April 29, 1994.

  231 “an intentional grab for glory” Kitta McPherson, “Rutgers Will Honor a Snubbed Drug Pioneer,” Newark Star-Ledger, April 25, 1994.

  231 Sciences Karl Maramorosch, letter to the editor, Sciences, January/February 1994.

  231 “cruel law” Mark Ernest and John Sbarboro, letter to the editor, The Sciences, January/February 1994.

  231 his personal view Byron Waksman, letter to the editor, The Sciences, May/June 1994.

  232 if his own contribution had been included Albert Schatz to Smithsonian Institution, June 28, 1973, SA, Record Unit 613, box 320, 10.

  232 list of Waksman’s items S. Dillon Ripley to Albert Schatz, October 6, 1975, SA, Record Unit 613.

  234 “absolutely no doubt” Milton Wainwright to Smithsonian, copy, February 20, 1991, MW.

  234 “thoroughly enjoyed” Patricia Gossel, curator to Albert Schatz, July 26, 1996, AS personal archive.

  Afterword

  235 threaten efforts M. D. Iseman, “Tuberculosis Therapy: Past, Present and Future,” European Respiratory Journal 20, no. 36 (2002): 87s–94s.

  235 [microbes] communicate Paul Williams, Klaus Winzer, Weng Chang and Miguel Camara, “Look Who’s Talking: Communication and Quorum Sensing in the Bacterial World,” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society 362 (2007): 1119–1134. See also Grace Yim, Helena Huimi Wang, and Julian Davies, “Antibiotics as Signaling Molecules,” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society 362 (2007): 1195–1200.