The author shows how feeble mankind's attempts to subdue the super organism of bacterial life has been. He reviews the great levelers: malaria, leprosy, the Black Death, the plague, syphilis, small pox, tuberculosis, flu and Aids. The author puts forward the controversial view that conquering HIV does not necessarily mean the conquering of Aids and AZT is as dangerous and unsuccessful a cure as mercury was for syphilis in the 18th century.