Modern science is old enough now to have a history of its own histories, and Professors in Universities who specialize in the history of science. (e.g. Simon Schaffer at Cambridge, https://www.people.hps.cam.ac.uk/index/teaching-officers/schaffer).
Looking back through the history and development of science is a great pleasure, and there are certain accounts which have stood out as highly influential. Paul de Kruif’s celebrated 1926 account Microbe Hunters is one. Here one learns about the discovery of the microbiological world, research which we now totally take for granted when expecting to be cured at our local hospital.
The book covers the following. Anton van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723) (The invention of a simple microscope and the discovery of micro-organisms); Lazzaro Spallanzani (1729-1799)(Biogenesis); Robert Koch (1843-1910) (The identification of pathogens); Louis Pasteur (1822-1895)(Bacteria); Emile Roux (1853-1933) and Emil von Behring (1854 -1917) (Diptheria); Elie Metchnikoff (1845-1916) (Phagocytes); Theobald Smith (1859-1934), (Animal vectors and ticks); David Bruce (1855-1931) (Tsetse fly and sleeping sickness); Ronald Ross (1857-1932) and Battista Grassi (1854-1925) (Malaria); Walter Reed (1851-1902) (Yellow fever); Paul Ehrlich (1854-1915) (The magic-bullet concept and syphilus). To all these pioneers humanity owes a great debt.
Check if this science classic is in stock at your local library by consulting the online catalogue at https://www.sllclibrary.co.uk/cgi-bin/spydus.exe/MSGTRN/OPAC/BSEARCH
337 pages in Harvest Books
First published 1926
ISBN 978-0151594115
Paul de Kruif