292 • The Great PlagueThe “microbe hunters” did not vanish after the appearance of Paul De-
Kruf ’s classic book with that alluring title. We do live in a smaller world, and
human encroachment on virgin forests and jungles keeps supplying us with
new toxic diseases in company with exotic plants and animals. Microbes and
their toxins may be just a breath or bite away. The challenge for future mi-
crobe hunters is to accelerate the discovery of new healing herbs and med-
icines and new medical understandings. From the past we can learn of other
human resources that sustained men and women who fought against their
own great plagues. The medical, religious, and administrative attempts at
containment by Londoners in 1665 , including the physicians’ sweatings and
purgatives, plague waters, and cauterizing of buboes, may not have saved
many lives, but perhaps they offered a placebo-like relief. The refusal of some
medical professionals to flee from the path of the disease and their struggle
to carry on raise a standard for us to emulate as we face our own medical
challenges with new uncertainties.