THE STAPHYLOCOCCUS: SEVEN DECADES OF RESEARCH (1885–1955)

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
The development of researches into Staphylococcus pyogenes is viewed in historical perspective at decade intervals over the period 1885–1955. Beginning when Lister's antiseptic spray ritual was about to be abandoned, the sequence of discoveries and attitudes is traced full cycle to the impending disenchantment with bacteriostatic agents. The early recognition of staphylococcal toxins was submerged by Metchnikoff's theories on phagocytosis, and Wright's on opsonins. The Bundaberg disaster drew attention again to the exotoxins; but almost simultaneously, Fleming's earlier work on the damaging effects of chemical antiseptics upon leucocytes culminated fortuitously in his discovery of penicillin. Before the antigenic properties of staphylococcus toxins could be exploited in a thorough clinical trial of toxoid and antitoxin, the sulphonamide and antibiotic era was upon us. Indiscriminate use of these agents inevitably provoked resistance to them by this versatile and ubiquitous pathogen, and led to the present mounting alarm at the intractability and prevalence of staphylococcal infections.

This publication has 18 references indexed in Scilit: