Mechanism of Action of Antieukaryotic and Antiviral Compounds

When Antibiotics I was published in 1967, the teleological view was held by some that" antibiotics" were substances elaborated by certain microorgan­ isms for the purpose of competing with other microorganisms for survival in mixed ecological environments. However, not only had J. EHRLICH and his associates shown 15 years earlier that chloramphenicol was produced by Strepto­ myces venezuelae in cultures of sterilized soils but not in parallel cultures of the same soils which were not sterilized,