Description: In 1901 Emil von Behring received the first Nobel Prize in med. for serum therapy against diphtheria, a disease that killed thousands of infants annually. Diphtheria serum was the first major cure of the bacteriological era and its develop. generated procedures for testing, standardizing, and regulating drugs. Emphasizes Behring's contrib. to the study of infectious disease, the formation of modern immunology, and research on remedies and vaccines against microbial infections. Explores his relations to the rival bacteriological schools of Robert Koch and Louis Pasteur, the emergent German pharmaceutical industry, and the institutionalization of experimental therapeutic research. Also contains translations of 13 key articles by Behring and his assoc.
Review Quotes: "The book not only is a complete biography of von Behring, but also provides us with a most interesting insight into the early days of immunology as a nascent discipline, when one discovery quickly followed another, and efforts were being made to fit them into a unified theory. Von Behring's contribution to this process cannot be overestimated."--Stanislaw Dubiski "Journal of the American Medical Association"