[Two chapters from the medical history of this century: antibacterial therapy]

The antibiotic era brought adequate therapies for bacterial infections and began with the introduction of sulphonamides (discovered earlier by Domagk) in 1935 and penicillins (discovered earlier by Fleming) in the course of World War II. Notwithstanding the usual description as 'discoveries', they were the fruits of systematic investigations for chemicals with antibacterial properties and little or no toxicity for the host. Despite the role of serendipity in the discovery of penicillin, the bactericidal moulds that Fleming observed had fallen on fertile soil: a laboratory where the search for antibacterial drugs had been going on for years.