Visually Classifying Bacteria and Antibiotics After World War II, antibiotics earned the moniker βwonder drugsβ for quickly treating previously-incurable diseases. Data was gathered to determine which drug worked best for each bacterial infection. Comparing drug performance was an enormous aid for practitioners and scientists alike. In the fall of 1951, Will Burtin published a graph showing the effectiveness of three popular antibiotics on 16 different bacteria, measured in terms of minimum inhibitory concentration.