Experiment Eleven (37 page)

vi
Complete honesty
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), 196.

3
opened his notebook
Albert Schatz's Ph.D. laboratory notebook, vol. 1, June 1943–February 3, 1944, Special Collections, Rutgers University.

8
local vigilante committees
Vivian Schatz, author interview, first interview November 8, 2008, and subsequently 2009 to 2011.

8
heavy smoking
Stanley Rosoff, “Prologue to America,” AS personal archive.

10
“I want to LIVE”
Albert Schatz,
Hilltop Star
, school newspaper, Passaic (New Jersey) High School, April 9, 1936.

11
“a mere dot”
Selman A. Waksman,
My Life with the Microbes
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 1954), 17.

11
“prominent merchant”
Waksman,
My Life
, 25.

11
he was spoiled
Waksman,
My Life
, 26; Byron Waksman, author interview April 20, 2011. Waksman's early life in Ukraine is based on
My Life
, 26–60.

12
“flying colors”
Waksman,
My Life
, 60.

12
“perhaps for the last time”
Waksman,
My Life
, 61.

13
first ten dollars
Waksman,
My Life
, 74.

14
“unimaginative bore”
and
“great disappointment”
Waksman,
My Life
, 77.

14
“worked in a sweatshop”
Byron Waksman, draft memoir sent to author, August 13, 2011.

14
“finally under the tutelage of a master”
Waksman,
My Life
, 78.

15
“major scientific interest”
Waksman,
My Life
, 81.

15
his first academic paper
Selman Waksman, “Bacteria, Actinomycetes, and Fungi of the Soil,” paper read by Jacob Lipman at a meeting of the Society of American Bacteriologists, Urbana, Illinois, 1915.

16
“sent my roots into the soil”
Waksman,
My Life
, 87.

17
dirty petri dishes
Selman A. Waksman,
My Life with the Microbes
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 1954), 102.

18
Adrenaline
See Joan Bennett, “Adrenaline and Cherry Trees,”
Modern Drug Discovery
4, no. 12: 47–48, 51.

18
“suggested the possibility”
Waksman,
My Life
, 106.

19
“demoralizes the assistants”
Selman Waksman to Jacob Lipman, March 8, 1926, LOC.

19
“zone is found free”
Selman Waksman and Robert Starkey, “Partial Sterilization of the Soil, Microbiological Activities and Soil Fertility,”
Soil Science
16, no. 3 (1923).

19
“not pursued further”
S. A. Waksman,
The Antibiotic Era: A History of the Antibiotics and of Their Role in the Conquest of Infectious Diseases and in Other Fields of Human Endeavor
(Tokyo: Waksman Foundation of Japan Inc., 1975), 10–11.

19
“grand scientific tour”
Waksman,
My Life
, 120–21.

20
“you are the actinomyces man”
Waksman,
My Life
, 153.

20
“hole of a troglodyte”
Waksman,
My Life
, 146.

20
“primarily a soil microbiologist”
Waksman,
My Life
, (London: Robert Hale, 1958), 182.

20
“too busy”
Waksman,
The Antibiotic Era
, 11.

20
Enzymes
S. A. Waksman and W. C. Davison,
Enzymes: Properties, Distribution, Methods and Applications
(Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins, 1926), 113.

20
“antagonism and symbiosis”
Selman Waksman,
The Principles of Soil Microbiology
(Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins, 1927 and 1932), 369–71 and 564.

20
smaller book
S. A. Waksman and R. L. Starkey,
The Soil and the Microbe
(London: John Wiley, 1931), introduction.

21
“a little Teutonic”
Charles Renner to David Pramer, June 6, 1988, HL.

21
“Throw it in the basket”
Renner to Pramer.

22
defatting hides; debutante balls
Charles Renner to Hubert Lechevalier, June 6, 1988, HL.

22
one of his graduate researchers
Chester Rhines, “The Persistence of Avian Tubercle Bacilli in Soil and in Association with Soil Microorganisms,”
Journal of Bacteriology
29 (1935): 299–311; “The Relationship of Soil Protozoa to Tubercle Bacilli,” ibid., 369–81.

22
“prepared to take advantage”
Selman A. Waksman,
The Conquest of Tuberculosis
(Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1964), 3; see also S. A. Waksman, “Tenth Anniversary of the Discovery of Streptomycin, the First Chemotherapeutic Agent Found to Be Effective Against Tuberculosis in Humans,”
American Review of Tuberculosis
70 (1954): 1–8.

23
never mentions this as a factor
For an overview of this period in Waksman's career, see a series of papers by Julius Comroe in “Pay Dirt: The Story
of Streptomycin,”
American Review of Respiratory Disease
117, no. 4 (1978): 773–80.

23
“hung on spikes”
Renner to Lechevalier.

23
Bacillus mycoides
J. A. Borudulina, “Interrelations of Soil Actinomycetes and B. Mycoides,”
Microbiologia
4, no. 4 (1935): 561–86.

23
started to turn his mind
George Luedemann, “Free Spirit of Inquiry,”
Actinomycetes
2, supp. 1 (1991): 2.

23
antibacterial properties
Alexander Fleming, “Selective Bacteriostasis,”
Report of the Proceedings of the Second International Congress for Microbiology
(London: Harrison and Sons, 1937), 33.

23
“seriously interested”
James P. Martin to Milton Wainwright, March 3, 1987, MW.

24
“substances which are antagonistic”
Selman Waksman and J. W. Foster, “Associative and Antagonistic Effects of Microorganisms: II. Antagonistic Effect of Microorganisms Grown on Artificial Substrates,”
Soil Science
43, no. 1 (1937).

24
Of eighty cultures
M. I. Nakhimovskaia, “The Antagonism Between Actinomycetes and Soil Bacteria,”
Microbiologia
6 (1937): 131–57.

24
gramicidin S
Gramicidin S was discovered by G. F. Gause and N. Brazhnikova when, after screening hundreds of bacteria, they finally found the same one as René Dubos,
Bacillus brevis.
Many consider Dubos unlucky not to have won the Nobel Prize in Medicine for his discovery. He wrote and lectured on environmental and social issues and won the 1969 Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction for his warnings regarding the health regarding the earth.

24
“one cannot escape the possibility”
N. A. Krassilnikov and A. I. Korenyako, “The Bacterial Substance of the Actinomycetes,”
Microbiologia
8 (1939): 673–85.

27
not even his deputy
Robert Starkey, deposition,
Schatz v. Waksman
, Superior Court of New Jersey, Chancery Division, Docket C-1261-49, July 18, 1950, 337.

27
exact distribution
Selman Waksman, “Statement Concerning My Relations with Merck & Co.,” undated, and “My Connections with Merck & Co.,” March 4, 1970, SAW, box 6, 17.

27
“chemotherapeutic agents”
Selman Waksman, “My Connections with Merck & Co.,” March 4, 1970, SAW, Box 6, 7. See also Randolph Major to Selman Waksman, December 15, 1942, SAW, box 1, 3.

27
“does not appear practicable”
W. H. Helfand et al., “Wartime Initial Development
of Penicillin in the United States,” in
The History of Antibiotics: A Symposium
, ed. John Parascandola (Madison, WI: American Institute of the History of Pharmacy, 1980), 31.

28
exclusive right
Randolph Major to Selman Waksman, February 17, 1941, SAW, box 1, 3.

29
“Command me”
Helfand et al., “Wartime Initial Development,” 39.

29
professor of pomology
Ernest Christ, “A History of the New Jersey Peach,”
www.njaes.rutgers.edu/peach
.

29
50-50 split
H. L. Russell to A. S. Johnson, November 9, 1937, RREF, Box 8, 3.

30
“off on the wrong foot”
A. S. Johnson to Philip Brett, November 22, 1939, RREF, box 8, 5.

30
Waksman's graduate students
H. Boyd Woodruff, “Fifty Years Experience with Actinomycete Ecology,”
Actinomycetologica
3, no. 2 (1989): 79–88.

30
above the chicken house
H. Boyd Woodruff, “A Soil Microbiologist's Odyssey,”
Annual Review of Microbiology
35, no. 1 (1981): 7, 28.

30
“great provider”
Charles Renner to Hubert Lechevalier, June 6, 1988, HL.

31
“drop everything”
Woodruff, “A Soil Microbiologist's Odyssey,” 33, 7.

31
“killing machines”
H. Boyd Woodruff, author interviews, December 3, 2010 and September 21, 2011.

32
“truly excited”
Woodruff, ibid.

32
“everything changed”
Woodruff, ibid.

32
no specific name
Woodruff, ibid.

33
“eyes and ears”
Woodruff, ibid.

33
“all going to die”
Woodruff, ibid.

34
400 cultures
Selman Waksman to A. N. Richards, October 1, 1942, LOC, box 3.

34
on four microbes
Selman Waksman to A. N. Richards, October 1, 1942, LOC, box 3.

34
“Great White Father”
Doris Jones, “A Personal Glimpse at the Discovery of Streptomycin,” undated, 1960, AS personal archive. See also Hubert Lechevalier, “Selman Waksman, Recollections of a ‘Latter Day Student and Associate,'” speech on Waksman centenary, Rutgers, May 19, 1988, 2.

34
“Jewish intellectual”
Hubert Lechevalier, “The Search for Antibiotics at Rutgers University,” in
History of Antibiotics
, 113.

34
work on ... clavacin
Selman Waksman to Albert Schatz, July 3, 1942, AS personal archive.

35
Commonwealth Fund
A. N. Richards to Selman Waksman, December 4, 1942, LOC, box 3.

35
“more valuable”
Selman Waksman to A. N. Richards, October 1, 1942, LOC, box 3.

36
“eager for the war to end”
Albert Schatz to Selman Waksman, March 31, 1943, SAW, box 14, 4.

36
Good Conduct Medal
Col. Joseph Benson, U.S. Army Air Corps, Albert Schatz Honorable Discharge, Miami Beach, Florida, June 15, 1943, AS personal archive.

37
“in his cloth”
Albert Schatz to Ross Tucker, undated letter, AS personal archive.

38
“well-padded bones”
Doris Jones Ralston, “A Personal Glimpse at the Discovery of Streptomycin,” undated, 1960, AS personal archive, 4.

38
“I worship him”
Jones Ralston, ibid., 4.