Antibiotics have eliminated or controlled so many infectious diseases that virtually everyone has benefited from their use at one time or another. Even without such personal experience, however, one would have to be isolated indeed to be unaware of the virtues, real and speculative, of these“miracle”drugs. The American press, radio, and television have done a good job of reporting the truly remarkable story of successes in the chemical war on germs. What's more, any shortcomings on their part have been more than made up for by the aggressive public relations activity of the pharmaceutical companies which manufacture and sell antibiotics.