In Vivo

Description written by Mildred Savage in opening pages of book

To me this is, in a sense, an historical novel, even though we are in only the second decade of the age of antibiotics. Today knowledge and tools in this phase of drug research are plentiful and sophisticated, but at the close of the Second World War, when a few men in a few laboratories---in universities, in research foundations, in industry---began to search for antibiotics, the techniques were crude and knowledge of the subject was almost nonexistent. In research this was a frontier, and these men were pioneers---as much as the men who, in another era, went west to open new territorial frontiers.

As with any historical novel, it has been necessary to go to the sources, and in this case the sources have been the men who lived the story---who were part of the search or who were able to observe it closely. More than a hundred persons---in industry, in universities, in government research---have contributed information. Many busy men gave me hours of their time in order to explain the sciences and the techniques involved. Many of them, in the interest of accuracy, took the trouble to dig out old records long since riled away. Many men who have since then done other important research have said, "Those were exciting days---"that" was a story, and it has never been told." I have tried to tell it as I heard it, with all the agonies and the ecstasies that were a part of it---and that will always be part of all research, as long as men continue the struggle to break new frontiers.