Book Description

American Surgery marks the culmination of almost two decades of book collecting and historical surgical research in the United States.Major events in the development of American Surgery closely mirrors significant occurrences in the history of our country. ... Read more

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An exhaustive research project which covers medical history.
If you are looking for information on the medical services available in the Civil War or how medicine was practiced at this turn of the century, then this is the text. It is a treasure chest of information for both the casual reader or serious researcher. The photos are excellent. Highly recommended as a gift for your favorite doc or medical collector. ... Read more

Book Description

The Yellow Emperor's Classic has become a landmark in the history of Chinese civilization. In recent years, traditional medical practice has seen a dynamic revival in China and throughout many countries in the Western world. Elements of this time-honored therapy, including acupuncture and the harmony of human spirit with the natural world, have become part of mainstream medical practice; The Yellow Emperor's Classic provides the historical and philosophical foundation of this practice. Ilza Veith provides an extensive introduction to her monumental translation of this classic work, which is written in the form of a dialogue in which the emperor seeks information from his minister Ch'I-Po on all questions of health and the art of healing. A new foreword by Ken Rose places the translation in its historic contexts, underlining its significance to the Western world's understanding of Chinese medicine. 24 b/w illustrations ... Read more

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Who is it for?
This translation includes only a small portion of the Huangdi Neijing, and the style of translation is such that most readers, including those versed in the principles of Chinese medicine, will gain about as much from studying it as they would from studying the original text without prior knowledge of ancient Chinese writing. It's not clear who the intended audience is for this translation.

Western-trained students and clinicians would be better served by Maoshing Ni's paraphrased translation, despite its problems. For a contemporary, scholarly treatment of the Neijing, try Paul Unschuld's. It's a fine alternative. There should be a link to it above on this page.

Ancient Chinese arts of healing and philosophy on life
This is an advanced book for those with an interest in herbal, meditation, and natural foods healing. A lot of the text refers to references and ideas that many may not understand unless you have read previous books on similar subjects. A thorough understanding of the many concepts and ideas of Yin Yang are a must and an understanding of the ancient references to many of the body's organs. The knowledge in this book is given in a conversational method. Many students of the Yellow Emperor respectfully ask him questions and he answers in eliquent methods. ... Read more

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Very thorough, very helpful.
This is a very thorough account of the practice of medicine in the Middle Ages. It covers most key points such as humors, blood-letting, women healers, hospitals, the role of religion in medicine, the taboos regarding medicine and other topics. It is greatly documented for further research and I recommend it highly to anyone interested in the topic, especially that it is written in a rather approachable and enjoyable fashion. It is a great starting point for research on medieval medicine, medieval social standards, and medieval everyday life. ... Read more

Book Description

A vivid new perspective on the settling of the American frontier, by one of our most prominent young historians.

Many have written about the settling of early 19th century America, but until now no one has explored these settlers' self-consciousness about what they were doing, what "settling" and cultivating the land itself meant. In The Health of the Country, Conevery Valencius shows that assessments of the "sickliness" or "health" of land pervade settlers' letters, journals, newspapers, and literature--evidence of the common sense of another time, when land was believed to have intrinsic health characteristics and the human body was understood to be linked in intimate and intricate ways with similar balances in the surrounding world. Valencius focuses her research on the Arkansas and Missouri territories from the time of the Louisiana Purchase to the Civil War, capturing the excitement, romanticism, confusion, and anxiety of the frontier experience and revealing how these emotions were bound up with settlers' unique relationships with their land. This is a complex and rewarding book, a beautifully written, fresh account of the gritty details of American expansion, animated by the voices of the settlers themselves. ... Read more

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top-notch
Really well-written history of what at first appears to be a very small slice of 19th-century America. This book takes a seemingly straightforward idea that settlers moved to get to better--and literally healthier--land and uses the idea as a lens through which to understand much of 19th-century America. And, amazingly, her strategy works. Her arguments are convincing and I definitely felt like I was learning new ideas and fascinating tidbits all along the way. ... Read more

Book Description

In the seventeenth century, smallpox reigned as the world's worst killer. Luck, more than anything else, decided who would live and who would die. That is, until Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, an English aristocrat, moved to Constantinople and noticed the Turkish practice of "ingrafting" or inoculation, which, she wrote, made "the small- pox...entirely harmless." Convinced by what she witnessed, she allowed her six-year-old son to be ingrafted, and the treatment was a complete success--the young Montagu enjoyed lifelong immunity from smallpox. Lady Montagu's discovery would, however, remain a quiet one; it would be almost 150 years before inoculation (in the more modern form of vaccination) would become widely accepted while the medical community struggled to understand the way our bodies defend themselves against disease.

William Clark's At War Within takes us on a fascinating tour through the immune system, examining the history of its discovery, the ways in which it protects us, and how it may bring its full force to bear at the wrong time or in the wrong place. Scientists have only gradually come to realize that this elegant defense system not only has the potential to help, as in the case of smallpox, but also the potential to do profound harm in health problems ranging from allergies to AIDS, and from organ transplants to cancer. Dr. Clark discusses the myriad of medical problems involving the immune system, and he systematically explains each one. For example, in both tuberculosis and AIDS, the underlying pathogens take up residence within the immune system itself, something Clark compares to having a prowler take up residence in your house, crawling around through the walls and ceilings while waiting to do you in. He discusses organ transplants, showing how the immune system can work far too well, and touching on the heated ethical debate over the use of both primate and human organs. He explores the mind's powerful ability to influence the performance of the immune system; and the speculation that women, because they have developed more powerful immune systems in connection with childbearing, are more prone than men to contract certain diseases such as lupus. In a fascinating chapter on AIDS, arguably the most deadly epidemic seen on Earth since the smallpox, Clark explains how the disease originated and the ways in which it operates. And, in each section, we learn about the most recent medical breakthroughs.

At first glance, it may appear that our immune system faces daunting odds; it must learn to successfully fend off, not thousands, but millions of different types of microbes. Fortunately, according to Clark, it would be almost impossible to imagine a more elegant strategy for our protection than the one chosen by our immune system, and his At War Within provides a thorough and engaging explanation of this most complex and delicately balanced mechanism. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Clark is a gem.
Most neurosurgeons and astrophysicists are busy constructing the future. Some of these overacheivers suffer from a mild mental disorder called hypergraphia and compulsively write stuff down. Fortunately Dr. William Clark suffers from hypergraphia and we benefit hugely because we can look into his mind by reading his books, and what a view it is. This book is essentially about mammalian immunology. Immunology is an odd subject to get because its quite dynamic, meaning its operation is determined by a wide array of parts. Clark's book is short, sweet and to the point. He covers the basics and proceeds with case studies that bring the lay reader close to his profession without having to spend years in postdoc research doing so. His opening account of the rancerous competition between France's Louis Pasteur and Germany's Robert Koch is fantastic reading for the bonified dork. Most interestingly, Clark primes us with some genetic engineering technique in his marvelous description of SCID, severe combined immune deficiency, and its concomitant 'magic bullet' cure based on the gene therapy associated with a monogenetic disorder; interesting stuff here. His coverage of autoimmune disorders alone makes this brief, action packed essay worth the price. Clark makes the mind numbing world of immunology a little bit friendlier here.

It made knowing the body so easy I was a professor when done
This is a fantastic book if you want to begin to know how your body and immune system work. From colds to cancer, It simplified and helped me to know how to begin the course of a natural cure. It put years of study about disease in real focus. ... Read more

Book Description

An Event That Forever Changed the Face of the West

On April 17, 1837, the steamboat St. Peter's pulled away from a St. Louis dock and began its annual journey up the Missouri River. Its mission was to deliver supplies to fur trading posts on the upper Missouri.

On that spring day, no one aboard the St. Peter's could have imagined the effect the voyage would have on Western history and the American Indian culture. The steamboat carried a shipment not listed on its manifest--a disease so horrible Indian parents sometimes killed their children to save them from terrible agony. Its scientific name was Variola major. Its common name was smallpox. Many natives knew it as "Rotting Face."

R.G. Robertson details how the smallpox epidemic of 1837-1838 altered the political and social structure of Native American tribes. In less than a year the disease virtually destroyed the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arickara cultures. It claimed entire villages of Blackfeet, stripping that proud nation of its power and wealth, leaving it too weak to stop invasions by other tribes and white settlers.

Before it ran out of human fuel, Rotting Face claimed an estimated 20,000 natives, doing more damage to the Northern Plains dtribes in one year than all the military expeditions ever sent against American Indians.

Robertson details the history of smallpox and the profound impact the disease had in Europe, Asia and the Americas, where it killed or maimed rich and poor, royalty and peasant.

Robertson's gripping and graphic account dispels some popular myths about the role of whites in the spread of this devastating disease. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

An accurate and revealing historical account
Rotting Face by author and historian R. G. Robertson is an accurate and revealing historical account of the cruelty of a devastating disease that decimated a people with no immunological defense against it. Variola major, commonly known as smallpox, dubbed "Rotting Face" was first carried to Native American peoples by means of a steamboat voyage, and carved a deadly swath of sickness, suffering, and death everywhere it spread. It destroyed the American Indian cultures of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arickara in less than a year, devoured entire villages of the Blackfeet, and claimed more lives from the Northern Plains tribes in one year than all the military expeditions ever sent against American Indians. Rotting Face is a compelling, graphic account dedicated to providing cold, hard facts and dispelling myths, particuarly in regard to the role of whites in the spread of this lethal disease. Highly recommended reading for anyone with an interest in Native American history, as well as the history of deadly diseases.

uncritical use of data
The text of this book is often redundant and filled with uncritical, often racist, paraphrases and quotes from "those at the scene". As much as I admire his thoroughness in using original diaries and reports, it is less than useful to cite the contents of such reports in mind numbing detail. As a medical anthropologist and long time lover of medical history I was disappointed and am taking the book back for a refund. ... Read more

Book Description

"One of the most readable medical histories ever." —Sunday Express

"A gripping read, enlightening and moving by turns." —Evening Standard

"Like an experienced suspense writer, the author of this marvelous book reserves his good news until the end. . . . One of the additional pleasures of his book lies in its vivid parentheses, case histories, even footnotes. . . . [it is] enlivened by Dormandy's mordant wit and idiosyncratic style. . . . A fine book." —Anita Brookner, The Sunday Times

"A model of how medical history ought to be written . . . lucid in its analysis and perspicacious in its commentary." —Peter Ackroyd, The Times of London

"This is not a book for the faint-hearted or the hypochondriac. It is, however, a fascinating account of a disease which is probably as old as man himself." —Literary Review

"Dormandy writes extremely well, with a sharp wit . . . it is impossible to do justice to the riches to be found in this book." —The Sunday Telegraph

The victims of tuberculosis (usually known as consumption) included not only Keats, The Brontës, Chopin and Chekhov, but members of almost every family. It was a killer on a huge scale.

The White Death is an outstanding history of tuberculosis.Thomas Dormandy's engrossing account of the search for a cure is complemented by a description of its complex natural history and by portraits of individual sufferers, including writers, artists, and musicians, whose lives and work were shaped (and often tragically curtailed) by the disease.But, tuberculosis is not just a disease of the past.In many parts of the world it is still a bigger killer than AIDS, while in America and Europe drug-resistant strains threaten its resurgence. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Index
This book is loaded with information but it could have been much better indexed. I also wonder why no mention is made anyplace about Seaview Hospital in Staten Island, NY, which was the largest municipal TB hospital in the U.S. in the first half of the 20th century, and contributed much in the fight against TB. Then again, maybe I missed it and Seaview is mentioned, but it's not indexed.

The White Death is a force to be reckoned with!
From Antiquity, tuberculosis has been a killer on a huge scale, ever-present yet lurking rather than epidemic; its explosion in the 1800s went hand-in-hand with industrialization, abetted by bad housing, endless work hours & poverty.

For the Victorians, who elevated illness to art forms, the victims of TB were the ultimate in pale & interesting; the roll call of tuberculous genius reads like who's who of artists & writers: Keats, Chopin, the Brontes; Robert Louis Stevenson, Chekhov, Orwell, to name only a few.

Thomas Dormandy has written an engrossing account of the amazingly complex social, artistic & natural history of this ubiquitous disease as well as a telling chronicle of the medical profession at its worst & best.

This is one vitally informative, compelling & erudite volume on an affliction that has been with us since we began burying our dead, drawing on walls & writing. Make no mistake, TB is with us still! It is now mutating upon the new vectors of HIV, prisons, orphanages & multidrug resistancy.

The White Death is an impressive & eminently readable history! Do check out my eInterview with this respected author - I think you will be as amazed as I!

The Best Work on the Subject
There have been some reasonably satisfying works written on the cultural aspects of tuberculosis, and others on the scientific struggle to understand and control the disease. What makes this work unusually rewarding is that Dormandy (a consultant pathologist and medical writer) possesses the ability and education to bring together TB's medical and cultural aspects. He is equally comfortable discussing the influence of TB on the German Lied tradition and the interaction between the disease organism and the immune system.

The White Death is particularly strong on TB's influence on European high and Bohemian culture and on the stories of individual scientists and doctors involved in research and treatment. Dormandy has a bit less patience for the bureaucratic history of public health and the political intrigues of academia, a feeling I share. I particularly enjoyed the opinionated and informative footnotes.

A Consuming disease
When the whole world seemed to be suffering with flu last winter I read and thoroughly enjoyed "Flu" by Gina Kolata. I caught the sickness bug (bad pun) and read several more social-history books about deadly diseases and living conditions in the past, and Dormandy's "The White Death" was by far the best. We readers are all familiar with the idea of the limp, frail tubercular Victorian who is tragically going to waste away before his magnus opus is finished, but do we realise that until fairly recently, tuberculosis was so common - in fact expected in certain circles - that the wasted tubercular look was actually fashionable amongst the artistic and indolent (early heroine-chic?)? This very readable book charts the long and difficult fight between the medical establishment and tuberculosis - a disease that wasn't fussy who it struck or where it struck. Of course, the poor slum-dwellers didn't stand a chance, but history does not record their names. What is striking is how many well known figures it hastened to an early grave - some of the finest artists, writers and minds of Europe, including the Brontës, Keats, Modigliani, Chekhov, D.H. Lawrence, Katherine Mansfield and George Orwell. It also rampaged through several royal households at various times. What made it so cruel was its slowness and the way it toyed with its victims. Availed with all that quackery could offer, the patient could have several seeming "recoveries" before eventually fading. Dormandy describes some of the practises of doctors in their battle against tuberculosis - you will have to read them for yourself! Gradually inroads were made by the scientific community but only after generations of sickness. Incredibly it was a long time before the idea of quarantine caught on (in Italy)! An interesting and readable medical and social history that becomes more compelling when you know that tuberculosis is again on the rise. Drug-resistant strains have been found, and it seems that whilst battles may have been won, the war may still be lost. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Anthrax, smallpox, West Nile virus, mad cow disease… and now Black Death? The 21st century’s list of new and returning biological scourges is enough to make anyone go a little Howard Hughes. But knowledge is the best defense, and Wendy Orent’s Plague is full of facts and educated speculations about the "world's most dangerous disease." Although always caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, plague can manifest in many ways, from a relatively benign and uncontagious infection to a potent airborne form that spreads like wildfire and kills without fail. Orent provides a gripping history of plague outbreaks around the world, such as the notorious Black Death of medieval Europe, and explains why reservoirs in rodent populations mean we will never eradicate the disease. Then, in chapters echoing recent books about smallpox and anthrax, Orent investigates the 20th century Soviet bioweapons program that focused on plague. Growing it, perfecting it, stockpiling it to use in wartime. Her insider information comes from Igor Domaradskij, a leading scientist in Soviet biological weapon development and vaccine production. In her interviews with Domaradskij, Orent allows him to show how easy it is for well-meaning scientists to shift back and forth between humanitarian and military work. Plague reveals the inner workings of a terrifying research effort, the products of which may or may not have been destroyed in 1992, when Boris Yeltsin ordered Soviet bioweapon labs shut down. Without resorting to alarmism, Orent cautions the world that plague is still out there, in nature and in laboratories, waiting for a chance to spread again. --Therese Littleton ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Plague by Wendy Orent
One of the most difficult and important talents for a scientist is to communicate difficult material in an understandable way. Dr. Orent has an astounding ability to communicate complex material coherently enough for a nonspecialist to understand. She has made sense of an enormous amount of plague history: why did specific plague eruptions throughout history emerge? Why did some eruptions self destruct while others kept going for many years? Why did some plague eruptions seem to require transmission through rats and rat fleas while others transmitted directly from human to human? Why do researchers in some countries consider plague virtually always fatal while researchers in some other countries consider it primarily a disease of rodents with little potential for human infection?

Dr. Orent traveled as far as Russia to meet with leading plague researchers (and biological terrorists) in the process of preparing this book.

I had the pleasure of discussing plague with Dr. Orent a couple of years ago when she was in Maryland doing research for the work. At the time I was stuck in the mind set from my days in college, when we learned that plague died down in Europe when the brown rats (essentially imune to plague) forced out the black rats (vulnerable to plague). While Dr. Orent told me that some forms of plague transmitted directly from human to human, the horror of the situation did not come through until I read her very convincing book.

I strongly recommend this book, one of the finest nonfiction books I have read in many years. As an experienced author, it takes a lot for an author to impress me with writing ability. Based on this book, Dr. Orent is one of the finest pure writers I have encountered in many years -- as well as an excellent scientist. ... Read more

Book Description

On a September morning in 1973, a hospital administrator in New York City learned of a rogue experiment in progress at his institution, and he ordered the removal from an incubator of a test tube containing a frothy mixture of human eggs and sperm. Had the experiment been allowed to continue, it might have resulted in the first human fetus created through in vitro fertilization.
In Pandora"s Baby, the award-winning journalist Robin Marantz Henig tells the story of that confrontation, which ushered in a new era in reproductive technology. She takes us back to the early days of IVF, when the procedure was viewed as crackpot science and its pioneers as outsiders in the medical world. Henig lays out the ethical and political battlefield of the 1970s -- a battlefield that is recreated with each new technology -- and traces the sea change that has occurred in the public perception of"test tube babies."
It is a human story, of men and women grappling with the moral implications of a scientific discovery: researchers, couples yearning for babies, hospital administrators, and bioethicists. Through these people Henig brings to life the argument made most forcefully against IVF in the early days: that it was the first step down the slippery slope toward genetic engineering, designer babies, and human clones. Even though this argument is worrisome and antiprogressive, Henig says, many of its most scary prophecies seem to be coming true.
Pandora"s Baby is a compelling story from the not-so-distant past that brilliantly presents the scientific and ethical dilemmas we confront ever more starkly as germ-line engineering and human cloning become possible. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

A delightful guide through a bioethical thicket
Adjectives like "judicious" and "level headed" (see the Publisher's Weekly review) don't do justice to this lively and probing and timely book. Henig has the gift of conveying complex scientific information painlessly and the stories she tells are riveting, full of hubris, lawsuits,medical cowboys, desperate would-be parents, nutty fundamentalists (in one protest at an in-vitro clinic, they carried a sign that read "Incest in a Test Tube") and, of course, politics. If you've been following the debate over stem cell research, cloning or the work of the President's commission on bioethics ( its chairman,Leon Kass, appears in this book as an early opponent of IVF ) Pandora's Baby is invaluable. And if you haven't been following, this is a great place to start.

The story of a technology under fire
In Pandora's Baby, Robin Henig tells of a confrontation which came to a head in 1973, where a hospital administrator in New York learned of a rogue experiment in progress which might have created the first human fetus through in vitro fertilization. His decision fostered a new era in reproduction technology and issues which continues to this day, and Henig's survey of IVF procedures and history provides the story of a technology under fire. ... Read more

Book Description

Mavericks, Miracles, and Medicine brings to life stories of the pioneering geniuses, eccentrics, and freethinkers who moved beyond the conventions of their day at great personal risk—and often with tragic results—to push forward the boundaries of modern medicine. From Werner Forssmann, who was so confident in his theory that doctors could insert a catheter into humans’ hearts for diagnostic purposes that he inserted one into his own heart, while watching on a live X ray (and was basically thrown out of the profession, only to be awarded the Nobel Prize just before his death many years later), to Anton Von Leewenhoek, a draper and part-time janitor who discovered the existence of protozoa, bacteria, sperm, and blood cells; from Wilhelm Roentgen, who developed the X-ray machine in his basement with a single cathode ray and some cardboard, to Jean-Baptiste Denis who gave the first-known blood transfusion (with sheep’s blood) and was later charged with murder (on manufactured evidence), Mavericks, Miracles, and Medicine is populated with the heretics and visionaries who forever changed medical science. This fully illustrated publication is the companion volume to The History Channel mini-series of the same name. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Medical Pioneers who risked everything to save lives.
Washing one's hands was a revolutionary idea back in sick houses in the 1840's...was it really too much trouble to keep one's hands spiffed up while delivering babies? This book explores many medical marvels taken for granted; such as the discovery of the x-ray, and how kidney transplantation evolved. It is told in a way that facinates. Who would be brave enough to innoculate one's own child against smallpox way back when such a thought could result in inprisonment? Yet, these brilliant medical amatuers dared to venture into areas that placed them in a most unflattering light. These smart people were true mavericks; a type of individual who was smart enough to see past medical tradition and look into logical realities in medicine. They were crazy and tenacious enough to hold onto these ideas while everyone else took their sweet time catching up to their revolutionary ideas. Author, Julie Fenster did alot of research into germ theory and the art of medicine. Much thinking is inspired while one contemplates -- where did our modern surgeries come from? This book explores the major discoveries of our modern, western medicine and it also dares to implore those blessed with scientific minds to keep pushing ahead with ideas that may be with held within logical day dreams. I enjoyed the science behind this book because it was written with alot of heart. I think any enterprenour would enjoy this book; all 281 pages of it. Oh yes, and a small word about animal experimentation -- the necesariness of it versus the evils of it are explained as well. Plan on taking your time reading this; contemplation of one's medical practice may be an interesting side effect; (not an adverse reaction, but a positive force indeed.) Good reading! ... Read more

Book Description

This book is a major and wide-ranging study of the great epidemic scourges of humanity-plague, leprosy, smallpox, syphilis, cholera, and yellow fever/malaria-over the last six centuries. This book will become the standard account of the way diseases-arising through chance, through reckless environmental change engineered by man, or through a combination of each-were interpreted in Western Europe and in the colonized world. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

Anti-imperialist screed
Sheldon Watts took us on a journey of exploration of a gigantic subject, followed his political views and lost his way. This book wants to put such a strong spin on disease as as an element of conquest, that it neglects and distorts too many facts. You can usually find the distortions by noting which paragraphs contain statements that treat some previously unknown fact as common knowledge and then not finding an end note providing some references. I also noted that most of the sources for the book were less than ten years old, and were often teritiary. Sheldon Watts also gets his biological facts wrong on many occasions, usually when trying to underline some action he feels is imperialist. His most unpardonable sin has to be attributing current knowledge to figures who had no such understanding, and then judging their actions using that assumption. For example, he assumes that since people understood that smallpox was communicable, that they had to understand that all diseases were communicable. This was long before Koch or even Snow. And Sheldon Watts does this even though he acknowledges that medical knowledge was effectively non-existant until the mid-1800s. Unless of course it is folk wisdom that he is talking about, which gets a pass, no matter how silly. If you are a Powerful White Man, on the other hand, you are assumed to be omniscient.

If you want a more limited treatment about the subject of diseases and public thought, I suggest that you try "The Cholera Years" by Charles E. Rosenberg. If you want a good treatment of multiple diseases and their biological progression around the world, try "Plagues" by Christopher Wills. Those two books together will cost less than this one, and you'll learn more. And they are far, far more readable.

An excellent treatise, marred by lapses into indignation
This work is impressive in its breadth of scholarship, but the author's personal rancor at Europeans' ill treatment of the rest of the world detracts from the narrative. The descriptions of the decimation of the Taino, the Aztecs, Inca and others within a century by the Spanish is truly horrific. Repeatedly referring to the Spanish as "terrorists" weakens, rather than reinforces the point. They were not terrorists: they were behaving as Europeans historically have. The author's succinct explanation of the reasons for the Spanish attitudes toward New World peoples makes his subsequent indignation with their actions curious, to say the least. Similarly, his explanation of malaria and yellow fever is extensive, but his indignation at Europeans in response to the diseases detracts from his scholarship. That Europeans are arrogant, naive, biased, pig-headed, murderous and short-sighted should come as no revelation to anyone reading this book. Other peoples in the world are too, but they didn't all have the opportunity to impose their will on others. To complement this work, Diamond's Guns Germs and Steel,and MacNeill's The Rise of the West, and Plagues and Peoples cover much of the same ground and posit theories how Europeans came to be in a position to impose their will on much of the rest of the world. Overall, a very interesting book, which would be better without these occasional, distracting polemics.

solid and interesting
I found this book an excellent companion to earlier books on the subject (McNeill, Crosby), as it puts diseases in human society in a historic social/cultural and political context. I started out sceptical but then got caught by the book and its analyis was for me an eye-opener on how (Western) medicine was a tool often used for ends that had nothing to do with physical well-being, sickness prevention and care. The end conclusions on economics and health economics i do not share at all, i think the author gets carried away a bit and goes way too fast to condemn economists here, (guess what my profession is). Definitely worth while.

This is one of the most important books ever published
Shelson Watts' Epidemics and History is an absolutely indispensible book. It is no exaggeraton to call it one of the most important books ever published. Watts is fearless in pulling the curtains back on the West's delusions and self-told lies. The book shows the connections among racism, imperialism, corporatism, capitalism, poverty, and disease. The conclusions are shocking, but it his penetrating analysis which renders what is shocking also understandable. Read this book.

Reality but defective in some aspects
The book has a very attractive and rather unkown subject. The analysis of different diseases and interactions between social powers, religion and the emergence of diseases is very interesting. But the information given about the Eastern and Islamic world is confined to Egypt. The author makes comments only relying on the Egyptian data and this is rather weak. But as a whole the book gives very useful information and shows that all these medical advances now and in history are not so innocent as in most cases economic concerns suppress humanity. ... Read more

Book Description

William Osler was born in a parsonage in backwoods Canada on July 12, 1849.In a life lasting seventy years, he practiced, taught, and wrote about medicine at Canada's McGill University, America's Johns Hopkins University, and finally as Regius Professor at Oxford. At the time of his death in England in 1919, many considered him to be the greatest doctor in the world.

Osler, who was a brilliant, innovative teacher and a scholar of the natural history of disease, revolutionized the art of practicing medicine at the bedside of his patients.He was idolized by two generations of medical students and practitioners for whom he came to personify the ideal doctor.But much more than a physician, Osler was a supremely intelligent humanist.In both his writings and his personal life, and through the prism of the tragedy of the Great War, he embodied the art of living.It was perhaps his legendary compassion that elevated his healing talents to an art form and attracted to his private practice students, colleagues, poets (Walt Whitman for example) politicians, royalty, and nameless ordinary people with extraordinary conditions.

William Osler's life lucidly illuminates the times in which he lived.Indeed, this is a book not only about the evolution of modern medicine, the training of doctors, holism in medical thought, and the doctor-patient relationship, but also about humanism, Victorianism, the Great War, and much else. Meticulously researched, drawing on many new sources and offering new interpretations, William Osler: A Life in Medicine brings to life both a fascinating man and the formative age of twentieth-century medicine.It is a classic biography of a classic life, both authoritative and highly readable. ... Read more

Reviews (7)

A Real Eminent Victorian
William Osler remains an iconic figure in American medicine. Osler is taken often to epitomize the physician who brings a crticial and scholarly approach to the bedside in conjunction with compassion and empathy. In this very well written biography, Bliss traces Osler's life, his achievements, and examines how he assumed iconic status and whether or not this status is deserved. Bliss is particularly well equipped to undertake this task. A well known specialist on Canadian history, he has written other fine books on medical history in a Canadian context.
Bliss presents Osler as a product of the rising British Victorian middle classes. The remarkable son of impressive parents, Osler was the son of an English naval officer turned Anglican minister and his equally intelligent wife. Raised in rural Ontario when this part of Canada was still a frontier, Osler's parents inculcated respect for learning, dedication to hard work, and clearly taught the value of community service. William Osler was not an outlier in this family. One of his brothers became a prominent businessman and two other brothers became important figures in Canadian law and politics. An early interest in natural history (biology) lead Osler to medicine. Trained in then provinicial Toronto and Montreal, he finished his education in some of the great teaching hospitals of Europe. Spotted by his mentors in Montreal as a future star, he was brought back to McGill to teach at the modest medical school. At McGill, Osler launched the career of careful clinical observation, pathologic correlation, and teaching that would propel him to the apex of his profession. His growing reputation led to appointments at the University of Pennsylvania and then to the nascent Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. At Hopkins, he became the first Professor of Clinical Medicine and introduced the teaching methods that revolutionized medical education in the USA. Relatively little of what Osler did was truly novel. Clinico-pathologic correlation has been standard method for expanding medical knowledge for decades and the clerkship method of teaching had been used in Britain and continental Europe for some time. Osler carried these methods to new heights. In his clinical practice, in his teaching, and in his great textbooks, Osler summarized and codified almost all of 19th century medicine. He was not a notable scientist, though his description and characterization of several important clinical conditions was very valuable, but he brought the best science of his time to the bedside and set clinical medicine on the course of drawing from systematic scientific work. In terms of his personal accomplishments and the example he set for his numerous trainees, his impact on 20th century medicine was immense.
Osler's reputation as a fine physician was deserved. Bliss shows him to be an warm and compassionate individual who was regarded often with great affection by his patients. Blessed with a generous and kindly personality, he enjoyed a wide circle of friends and a happy family life. In important respects, Osler exemplifies some of the most important and most admirable features of the Victorian period. His sense of virtue and service was very strong but he was not a prig and had relatively liberal values. Traveling in Germany towards the end of the 19th century, he noted and deplored rising anti-Semitism. He appears to have been devoid of overt anti-Semitic feelings and had a number of Jewish trainess, all of whom he appears to have treated with his usual combination of high expectations and civil behavior. Alone among the faculty at Hopkins, he supported the admission of women, though he did not really believe in female equality. Bliss spent years immersed in Osler's extensive writings and tremendously extensive correspondence, clearly likes and admires Osler, and his regard for Osler is reflected in the tone of this biography.

Osler was also that quintessential Canadian, the provincial boy who achieves fame on the wider stage of the USA or Britain. At the peak of his fame, he was the best known physician in the English speaking world and something of a minor celebrity.
Like all fine biographies, this book is about more than its central subject. It is valuable on the development of Canadian society, the growth of universities in the USA and Canada, the history of medicine, and the devastating impact of WWI.
This will be the standard biography of Osler and it is worthy of its subject.

the good doctor
This is, quite honestly, a hefty tome, but no less may be expected when writing about the greatest American physician who ever lived. Bliss presents us with a detailed, well-paced, and engaging biography of Dr. Osler, from his childhood days in Canada to his final years at Oxford. Being both a student of medicine and a Baltimorean (currently), I took a special interest to the chapters devoted to his post as the first chief of medicine at the Johns Hopkins Hospital.

Unlike the time-honored work by Cushing, Bliss's book is no hagiography; it makes no false overtures about Dr. Osler's iconic grandeur, instead letting the reader discover for himself (or herself) that Dr. Osler was, in fact, as great a man as people say he was. (All that being said, I still value the two-volume Cushing biography, and there is no way I will rid myself of the precious first-edition set I snatched up last year at the Maryland Historical Society bookshop!)

One need not practice Oslerolatry (that is, the veritable worship of Dr. Osler expressed by many of the older faculty at Hopkins and elsewhere) to appreciate this book, though having an interest in medicine and/or medical history may help. Critics often lament that American doctors no longer have any professional integrity, and that taking the Hippocratic Oath is a sham. Read this book, and discover how great the American physician can be...and THEN lament that they don't make them like they used to.

Absolutely delightful!
Any attempt to describe the life of such an illustrious personage, as one could imagine must be a rather daunting task. However, Michael Bliss's smooth-flowing rendering of Dr. William Osler's life is made not only manageable, but a sheer joy to read.

Of course this book will be compared with the innumerable number of other writings about William Osler, most notably of course the Cushing version. And Bliss clearly acknowledges the plethora of carefully collected documentations and personal correspondences that Cushing had accumulated in crafting his tale. However, I think this book stands on its own as a unique rendering of Osler mainly because of one simple fact. Bliss has had the luxury of time on his side to not just document the time and lives and the state of Medicine in the late 19th century, but most importantly, he relates it to the current, modern day state of affairs in those areas as well. He has woven a story that encompasses through the life of the great Osler, the tremendous influences of 19th medicine on modern day medicine. Even if one is not in the health-related professions or the biomedical sciences, one cannot miss the fact that this is a book as much about humanism as it is about medicine.

Biography, like history is riddled with biases, especially if it is about people and events that have revolutionazied mankind. This is particularly so in regards to William Osler, whose life and work have been immortalized, and a man who had acheived a legendary status even during his own life time. Bliss's work is as unbiased as it could possibly be given the already intrinsic biases about his subject. In this sense, this book is also unique from the previous biographies of Osler.

Overall, this is a most enjoyable read. This is definitely a "page-flipper" that takes you into the life, struggles, and triumps not only of Osler, but in a sense, of the entire human race.

A Wonderful Book!
I was not an unbiased reader when I picked this up -a graduating medical student about to begin a medical residency. There is a minimum of technical medicine in this biography -it reads more like a novel, filled with Osler's own writing. Bliss poured through his technical papers, his speaches, letters and medical jokes (published under the pseudoname Eagerton Y Davis) and gives us a taste of what an incredible man he must have been. Full of energy, a mind constantly at work, yet a tender-hearted soul who was a pioneer in the art of medicine, of making the doctor-patient relationship warm and empathetic in an era when this was unpopular. Bliss reveals that this is a person we should remember and who's example we all should take to heart: diligent work, a positive attitude, and concern for humanity made manifest each day in one's daily living. Read this book!

Wonderful book!
Though I've never personally had much of an interest in the history of medicine, I found this book very enjoyable and inspirational. I think all physicians will similarly feel inspired, as Osler was a shining example of what good bedside manner can accomplish in an age where medicine was relatively impotent, and beyond that, he was also a shining example of a brilliant, decent and caring human being. A wonderful book, beautifully written...I couldn't put it down, and I hope you will have the same trouble! Paul Dash MD ... Read more

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Useful for Those Interested in Herbal Medicine
If the aspect of Hildegard of Bingen's work that you are interested in is her medicinal lore, then this work will save you hours of wading through her theological writings hunting for her specific recommendations on herbs and health. The main reason I don't give it a higher rating is that the authors deliver Hildegard's writings as if they were prescriptions, and she recommended some dubious (but acceptable to Medieval thinking) substances such as whale meat and vulture beak powder! ... Read more

Reviews (3)

The Insanity Plague!
_The Invisible Plague_ is written by psychiatrist E. Fuller Torrey and examines the issue of the increase in worldwide cases of insanity since the eighteenth century. The book is at once both a scientific study which attempts to explain certain statistical data from different parts of the world, including Europe, the United States, and Canada, as well as a history of the mental asylum. Torrey examines in particular the issue of insanity and it's two principal forms - that of schizophrenia and that of manic-depressive psychosis. He also examines the role of insanity within literature, examining writings of such figures as Edgar Allen Poe, Hawthorne, and Melville, among others of course. Data from successive censuses taken in various countires seem to support Torrey's conclusions that insanity is indeed increasing, though with the era of deinstitutionalization this becomes more difficult to prove. Thus, according to Torrey, this issue may be covered up, because where formerly patients were admitted to asylums today they are not. Explanations for this increase have traditionally varied. Torrey also discusses some of the theories as to the causes of insanity - all biological, including genetics, stress, and environmental factors, as well as toxins and microbes in the environment. While the warnings in this book may appear alarmist, this book offers an informative introduction to the issue of insanity, which continues to plague the modern world despite its ancient origins. As a history text this book is good in that it reveals some of the developments which were responsible for the birth of modern day psychiatry and the state mental institution or asylum. Perhaps we can see in insanity, a reflection of the larger struggles of civilization as it makes its way from its birth pangs in ancient times, to its growth development, and eventual old age and decline.

Well written, well researched
This book was a delightful read. It is a fascinating trip back through history on a thought provoking topic, and the authors present their view in a scholarly manner. There is enough anecdotal information to keep it moving and interesting, and it is far from being "dry". If you have even a casual interest in the rise of mental illness in Britain and North America you'll definitely enjoy this book.

Times haven't changed much....
Dr. E. Fuller Torrey does excellent research and gives extensive information on the life and times of the maltreatment of the mentally ill. Very good book. I recommend this to anyone who has been diagnosed with a mental illness or has family members suffering from a mental illness.

This book shows me that the mentally ill are still treated like a human zoo just like they were back in the times of Bedlam in London. Just look at the movies and tv news reports....the public is made to fear mental illness instead of understand it.

Dr. Torrey's book tries to break down the walls of stigma and ddiscrimination to educate people. ... Read more

Book Description

The expressions "idiot, you idiot, you're an idiot, don't be an idiot," and the like are generally interpreted as momentary insults. But, they are also expressions that represent an old, if unstable, history. Beginning with an examination of the early nineteenth century labeling of mental retardation as "idiocy," to what we call developmental, intellectual, or learning disabilities, Mental Retardation in America chronicles the history of mental retardation, its treatment and labeling, and its representations and ramifications within the changing economic, social, and political context of America.

Mental Retardation in America includes essays with a wide range of authors who approach the problems of retardation from many differing points of view. This work is divided into five sections, each following in chronological order the major changes in the treatment of people classified as retarded. Exploring historical issues, as well as current public policy concerns, Mental Retardation in America covers topics ranging from representations of the mentally disabled as social burdens and social menaces; Freudian inspired ideas of adjustment and adaptation; the relationship between community care and institutional treatment; historical events, such as the Buck v. Bell decision, which upheld the opinion on eugenic sterilization; the evolution of the disability rights movement; and the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in 1990. ... Read more

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A complete waste of my time.
I purchased this book from Walmart, and needless to say this will be the last book I ever buy online from them ever again. It was extremely boring, and uninformative. ... Read more

Book Description

This concise, straightforward book will help workers in all scientific disciplines to present their results effectively. Chapters include:"Writing a Scientific Paper" "Before You Lecture or Talk to Us, Please Read This" "Empty Numbers" "Preparation of the Script and Figures" "For Those to Whom English is a Foreign Language" "Preparation of a Doctoral Dissertation or Thesis" ... Read more

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Vernon Booth: a classic in scientific writing
This book is by one of the first authors to recognise that communication skills are important in science, and that they are a craft that has rules and principles that any student can learn relatively easily. It deserves to be treated as a classic, and should be compulsory reading for any student of the life sciences.

I can recall reading it with much interest during my PhD in the 1980's, when it was about the only work available in this field, and various biochemical societies in the UK made it available to students. Much of the advice on straightforward communication style is still extremely valid today. In the later 80's and 90's, the field of writing skills took off, and now most University bookshops have several shelves of books on writing skills and how to write a thesis. Booth's book is short, direct, and the advice is very practical. Read it! ... Read more