Page "Antibacterial" Paragraph 7

John Tyndall first described antagonistic activities by fungi against bacteria in England in 1875.

Synthetic antibiotic chemotherapy as a science and development of antibacterials began in Germany with Paul Ehrlich in the late 1880s.

Ehrlich noted certain dyes would color human, animal, or bacterial cells, while others did not.

He then proposed the idea that it might be possible to create chemicals that would act as a selective drug that would bind to and kill bacteria without harming the human host.

After screening hundreds of dyes against various organisms, he discovered a medicinally useful drug, the synthetic antibacterial Salvarsan now called arsphenamine.