The Microbe Hunters

By Paul de Kruif

Words from the achiever

“There was a book, called The Microbe Hunters, which dealt with a lot of very exciting discoveries by people in chemistry, physics, biology. That, I felt, was a book that’s overlooked these days which I think all children should have to read. It dealt with people like Jenner, and the smallpox vaccination. Each one had an entirely exciting life, a lot of struggle but a lot of satisfaction, a lot of achievement, and the feeling that it was all right to struggle. It was all right for it to be hard. It didn’t have to come easily. And yet there were so many things to be done in science. I would like to give one of those books to every child in the elementary schools, not just in high school.”

About the book

Dramatic life-stories of the first heroes in the struggle against infectious disease.