1952

Selman Waksman receives Nobel Prize for discovery of streptomycin; Albert Schatz, co-discoverer, ignored (Wainwright, 132ff.). Committee also denied prize to Jorgen Lehmann, Swedish discoverer of PAS, which was discovered same years as streptomycin (1944) but only reached publication in 1946 (F. Ryan, 367-370). Salk’s first trial of his dead-virus polio vaccine (made from monkey testicles and kidneys, with live viruses killed with formaldehyde) on polios at the D. T. Watson Home for Crippled Children (outside Pittsburgh) to see if it would boost their antibody levels – a complete success (Gould, 132), but Offit says results were disappointing, as only vaccines containing type 2 strain (not 1 or 3) of the virus were effective. The breakthrough was in the follow-up study in May at Polk State School for mentally retarded boys, where a vaccine containing all three strains, suspended in mineral oil (an adjuvant) generated antibodies in both blood and serum (Offit, loc 431).