Saturday, September 8, 2012

The triumph of natural penicillin : Uncle Tom's Cabin, Mark II

MkII : WWII moral battle over penicillin
Unabashedly I intend my first book, on the unexpected WWII success of the humble little natural penicillin team against the massed forces of artificial penicillin, to be a sentimental work in the full Victorian sense of the word.


110 years before "The Locomotion" , Little Eva Mk I, caused a commotion


Think of it as a new version of Uncle Tom's Cabin, updated 100 years, with Henry Dawson's dying efforts (like that of  Little Eva) moving the unregenerate heart* of Topsy ("John L" Smith) to finally do the world-saving good that only he could do , against the pressures of the Simon Legree-like evil figure of Howard Florey.....

* Hat tip to Jane Tompkins (in her book Sensational Designs) for indirectly suggesting the role of Little Eva for Doctor Dawson.


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