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S01E06 - "The Search for the Magic Bullet"
Aired on Oct 23, 1974, 8:55 PM
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Episodes (1 Season · 6 Episodes)
The Invisible Enemy
In the 1840s the Vienna General Hospital was one of the great centres of European medicine, yet many mothers died of ' childbed fever.' Ignaz Semmelweis set out to find the cause of this disease.
Sep 18, 1974
55 min
A Germ is Life
In the small French town of Arbois stand the graves of Louis Pasteur 's three young daughters. Two had died from typhoid, one from an inoperable tumour-a stark reminder of the background to his struggle to find the cause of disease.
Sep 25, 1974
55 min
Men of Little Faith
The early 1870s. Although a revolution is under way in the understanding of disease, ignorance and opposition to the new ideas exist at all levels. Can Pasteur or Koch find a practical outcome of their experiments that will convince the sceptics?
Oct 2, 1974
55 min
Certain Death
On 6 July 1885 young Joseph Meister was brought to Pasteur's laboratory. He had been savaged by a rabid dog and bitten 14 times. Death from rabies seemed certain, unless Pasteur would treat him with an untried and possibly lethal vaccine.
Oct 9, 1974
55 min
The Tuberculin Affair
1890: Germany is host to an international congress of doctors. Pressure is on Koch, working on a cure for tuberculosis, to produce results to surpass the French success with rabies.
Oct 16, 1974
55 min
The Search for the Magic Bullet
At the turn of the century two men, one in London, the other in Frankfurt, were embarking on research which each hoped would provide the cures so sorely needed. At the time it would have been impossible to say which would succeed.
Oct 23, 1974
55 min
