http://discovermagazine.com/2010/mar/07-dr-drank-broth-gave-ulcer-solved-medical-mystery/article_print

For years an obscure doctor hailing from Australia’s hardscrabble
west coast watched in horror as ulcer patients fell so ill that many had their
stomach removed or bled until they died. That physician, an internist named
Barry Marshall, was tormented because he knew there was a simple treatment for
ulcers, which at that time afflicted 10 percent of all adults. In 1981 Marshall
began working with Robin Warren, the Royal Perth Hospital pathologist who, two
years earlier, discovered the gut could be overrun by hardy, corkscrew-shaped
bacteria called Helicobacter pylori. Biopsying ulcer patients and culturing the
organisms in the lab, Marshall traced not just ulcers but also stomach cancer to
this gut infection. The cure, he realized, was readily available: anti­biotics.
But mainstream gastroenterologists were dismissive, holding on to the old idea
that ulcers were caused by stress.