Book Description

Highly readable, American Plagues relays the most important epidemics in U.S. history. The author's engaging writing style helps readers understand the major concepts in the spread of disease and the roles of medicine and public health in combating epidemics. Current and classic medical studies are used as examples throughout the text. ... Read more

Amazon.com

For most of human history, our bodies have been inscrutable, accessible only to exterior or postmortem examination.But over the past hundred years, we've found tricky ways of viewing our bones, brains, and unborn children and thus greatly enriched our health. Medical physicist Anthony Brinton Wolbarst celebrates this revolution in Looking Within, an intriguing survey of medical imaging from the early days of Roentgen to the latest developments in thermography and functional magnetic resonance imaging.Writing for a general, if well-educated, audience, he guides us through the century by explaining the theories underlying each imaging technique as applied to real cases: broken bones, tumors, and heart disease all make their presence known through increasingly sophisticated technology.

The images, both reproductions and explanatory diagrams, are top-notch, lending a visual balance to the text that carries the reader through even when Wolbarst (rarely) gets a bit too technical.His experience with the National Cancer Institute and the Environmental Protection Agency broadens his range of understanding of the effects of radiological imaging on our lives, making his explanations more cogent and practical.Whether you want to gain insight into that ultrasound you have coming up or you simply want to marvel at the miracles of modern medicine, Looking Within will help you see what's really going on--just like a shoe store fluoroscope. --Rob Lightner ... Read more

Reviews (3)

superior science writing
I love reading science books geared toward non-scientists such as I. Bettyann Holtzmann Kelves Naked to the Bone: Medical Imaging in the Twentieth Century exactly fit the bill. Profusely illustrated and gracefully written, this fine work of non-fiction tells the story of x-rays, CT scan, MRI, sonograms, and PET scans. Kelves writes for the non-scientist, and does an excellent job of explaining how these various machines work, how they were perceived at the time, the economics of their development and marketing (Kelves never forgets that, for better or worse, medicine and inventing have always been businesses), and their changes in perception and use over time. Perhaps most interesting, and unexpected, are her two chapters addressing how medical imaging -- the ability to see "bones and all" -- was itself imaged in and influenced the visual, literary, and fine arts. Of particular interest to me, as a lawyer, is her accounts of how x-rays and other imaging devices were first used, and then later relied upon (or rejected) in courts of law. The depth and breadth of her research are truly impressive, as is her fine prose.

What an incredible story. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.
I listened to the interview on NPR's Science Friday several months ago thought how exciting can the discovery of x-rays be? I gave it a quick glance at a local book store and I was hooked. Did people actually buy lead lined underwear? Do physicians make mistakes? Even if they are treating the president of the United States? Lawyers found a way to profit from x-rays 100 years ago too. It is cleverly presented describing events as they occurred. I did find one fact that was not correct, the invention of television. According to the book, TUBE, television was invented 15 years earlier than what was mentioned in the book. Aside from that, I think it is an incredible story.

"An occasional error- - - - " in "Naked to the Bone".
On page 92 of "Naked to the Bone", author Kevles gibes at the 1896 edition of "Practical Radiography", which through 20 years of reprints carried an inverted x-ray frontispiece captioned "The Human Heart in situ". She explains that "many people, including physicians, simply could not tell what they were looking at in a radiograph or through a fluoroscope." I would certainly wish her the same 20 years of reprints for her most informative and well- researched history, but before the second edition comes out she should correct the MRI on page 174, which is a dandy view of the cervical spine but which is inverted! Apparently, progress in medical imaging has far outpaced progress in editorial scrutiny over the past 100 years. ... Read more

Book Description

From 1815 to 1914, death rates of European soldiers, serving both at home and abroad, dropped by nearly ninety percent. But this drop applied mainly to soldiers in barracks. Soldiers on campaign, especially in the tropics, continued to die from disease at rates as high as ever. This book examines the practice of military medicine during the conquest of Africa, especially in the 1880s and 1890s. Curtin examines what was done, what was not done, and the impact of doctors' successes and failures on the willingness of Europeans to embark on imperial adventures. ... Read more

Book Description

Already the recipient of extraordinary critical acclaim, this magisterial book provides a landmark account of American medical education in the twentieth century, concluding with a call for the reformation of a system currently handicapped by managed care and by narrow, self-centered professional interests.

Kenneth M. Ludmerer describes the evolution of American medical education from 1910, when a muck-raking report on medical diploma mills spurred the reform and expansion of medical schools, to the current era of managed care, when commercial interests once more have come to the fore, compromising the training of the nation's future doctors. Ludmerer portrays the experience of learning medicine from the perspective of students, house officers, faculty, administrators, and patients, and he traces the immense impact on academic medical centers of outside factors such asWorld War II, the National Institutes of Health, private medical insurance, and Medicare and Medicaid. Most notably, the book explores the very real threats to medical education in the current environment of managed care, viewing these developments not as a catastrophe but as a challenge to make many long overdue changes in medical education and medical practice.

Panoramic in scope, meticulously researched, brilliantly argued, and engagingly written, Time to Heal is both a stunning work of scholarship and a courageous critique of modern medical education. The definitive book on the subject, it provides an indispensable framework for making informed choices about the future of medical education and health care in America. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

A superb history of 20th Century American medical practice.
Time to Heal surveys the state of American medical education from the turn of the century to modern HMO times, providing a sweeping survey of American medical education in modern times and examining how American medical education evolved. From the transformation of medical schools and student learning processes to social programs which affected research, this provides an important history for any aspiring medical student. ... Read more

Book Description

The presidency is hazardous to your helth. Fully two-thirds of our presidents have died before reaching their life-expectancy- despite being wealthier, better educated, and better cared for that most Americans. In Mortal Presidency, the first complete account of death and illness in the White House, Robert E. Gilbert looks at modern presidents including Coolidge, FDR, Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Reagan. He shows- in some cases, for the first time- that all suffered from debilitating medical problems, physical and/or psychological, which they frequently managed to conceal from the public but which, in important ways, affected their political lives. This edition is updated to include a brief look at Presidents Clinton and Bush, both of whom suffered sudden and unpleasant indispositions while in office which to some degree affected their presidencies. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Intresting for biographies of studied presidents
This book argues that the modern presidency is so stressful that it is a threat to the health of its occupants. After a short chapter on the general mortality rates of presidents, the author gives five fascinating case studies (of Presidents Coolidge, Roosevelt, Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Reagan). I don't think the author really proves his main premise: in recent times Presidents Nixon, Ford and Reagan have comfortably exceeded their normal life expectancies, and, for that matter, it looks like Lyndon Johnson was actually kept alive by his presidency. (He looked after himself prudently while in office, but started chain-smoking again and gorged on fried foods after he left. He died four years later.) For all that, however, the case studies are quite fascinating and should be studied by anyone who wishes to know more about any of the men in the case studies. For example, Gilbert shows that, contrary to legend, neither Roosevelt nor Kennedy performed his duties less than well, however poor his health. In short, the book is well worth reading for its biographical detail, but it doesn't really add anything to the debate about reforming the American presidency ... Read more

Book Description

An eminently readable, entertaining romp through the history of our vain and valiant efforts to heal ourselves.

Mankind's battle to stay alive and healthy for as long as possible is our oldest, most universal struggle. With his characteristic wit and vastly informed historical scope, Roy Porter examines the war fought between disease and doctors on the battleground of the flesh from ancient times to the present. He explores the many ingenious ways in which we have attempted to overcome disease through the ages: the changing role of doctors, from ancient healers, apothecaries, and blood-letters to today's professionals; the array of drugs, from Ayurvedic remedies to the launch of Viagra; the advances in surgery, from amputations performed by barbers without anesthetic to today's sophisticated transplants; and the transformation of hospitals from Christian places of convalescence to modern medical powerhouses. Cleverly illustrated with historic line drawings, the chronic ailments of humanity provide vivid anecdotes for Porter's enlightening story of medicine's efforts to prevail over a formidable and ever-changing adversary. 38 b/w illustrations. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Entertaining little history of medicine
First of all, this book is an easy read. Now, don't get me wrong, this doesn't mean the book is not worth reading it, this means just that the author uses a lay language, not much profundity, and this is a short book (specially short for a history of medicine). Anyway, Porter's book treats every epoch in medicine history, if you don't intend to spend much time reading about medicine history, well, this is your book, it's complete, concise and comprehensibly.

Enjoyable and informative
I got this one because I love obscure history and it does not disappoint. Be warned the book is aptly named. It is gristly albeit fascinating. Starting with diseases and ending with modern medicine Porter takes you step by step chronologically through almost all aspects related to healing. He leaves no gall stone unturned (sorry.. couldn't help it.) He does at times get carried away with his terminology, but the book is surprisingly accessible. The author is able to convey the importance of discoveries by setting up what conditions were like before those discoveries were made. Notably some that we take for granted, like the finding and use of vitamins and antibiotics. Quick, enjoyable and well worth getting. This is something I look forward to reading again soon.

A quick and unsettling read
In a sense this is a "lite" version of the late Roy Porter's well-received history of medicine from 1997, entitled The Greatest Benefit to Mankind. He is also the editor of The Cambridge Illustrated History of Medicine (1996) and was until his death professor of social history at University College London.

But let's face it, the history of medicine has not been a pretty story, nor could it have been. Most of history's physicians were flailing about in the dark, the surgeons as sawbones and barbers performing crude amputations and such without the aid of either anaesthetics or disinfectants, the practitioners as faith healers and quacks, dispensing placebos or poisons often without knowing which was which. It wasn't until the late 19th century that the medical profession began to achieve some understanding of the real causes of illness and indeed understand how living things work and how and why they don't work. Porter recalls some of the controversies about the vivisection of cadavers, and arguments about the causes of infectious disease: an argument made difficult because of course the microbes could not be discerned until about the time of Pasteur.

Porter outlines this sobering story from the time of the Greeks to the present day in an objective and easily assimilated style. He organizes the material into eight chapters focusing on Disease, Doctors, The Body, The Laboratory, Therapies, Surgery, The Hospital, and Medicine in Modern Society. Along the way he delves into the politics (some sexual) and into the sociology of medicine around the globe. There are suggestions for Further Reading and an Index.

There are also about 40 rather appalling (some amusing) illustrations from previous centuries in this (for a change) accurately named little tome, showing the horrors of past medical practices. They enliven Porter's text, but you may need a magnifying glass to catch all the nuances--as though you might want to do that!--since some of the prints, while small enough to fit the page are not large enough for the unaided eye.

In short, this is a quick and unsettling read that may make the reader wonder about how future generations will view some of the medical procedures practiced today.

The Basis for Western Medicine
Porter provides a short, readable history of Western medicine in this soothingly small book. He uncovers the roots of the medical hegemony, clarifying historical origins of basic assumptions in modern medicine. The author's British perspective provides American students with needed background to understand that the modern concept of scientific, impersonal medicine is very recent indeed. Plenty of facts are woven into the text along with interesting historical prints. A pleasure to read. ... Read more

Book Description

Medicine has always had its historians; but until recently it was a history written by and for practitioners.Charles Rosenberg has been one of the key figures in recent decades in opening up the history of medicine beyond parochial concerns and instead viewing medicine in the rich currents of intellectual and social change of the past two centuries.This book brings together for the first time in one place many of Professor Rosenberg's most important essays.The first two sections of essays, focusing on ideas and institutions, are meant at the same time to underline interactions between these realms.The essays treat such topics as therapeutics and its relationship to social change in the nineteenth century; the practice of medicine in New York a century ago; and the rise and fall of the dispensary.The third section of the book focuses on the attempt to use history as a resource for discussion of a medical world that often seems out of control and in a semi-permanent crisis, economic, organizational, and humane.The essays discuss themes that have become visible to the public--deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill and the status of psychiatry; the hospital as a social and economic problem; and the social negotiations surrounding AIDS.Charles Rosenberg is the Janice and Julian Bers Professor of the History and Sociology of Science at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the author, most recently, of the widely acclaimed book, The Care of Strangers: The Rise of America's Hospital System (1987).He has served as president of the Society for the Social History of Medicine and is currently the president of the American Association for the History of Medicine. ... Read more

Book Description

Throughout its development, from an ancient craft of magic and religion to a field of science and technology, surgery has inspired strong feelings--hope and admiration, fear and censure, but never indifference.Here, for the first time-- in The Illustrated History of Surgery--is a readable and chronological account, across the whole spectrum of world history, of the development of surgery and of the great personalities whose skill and courage paved the way for the modern surgeon.The book also includes information on the use of drugs, herbal remedies, early anaesthetics and a whole range of procedures related to surgery and its evolution.

The text ranges from primitive surgery in prehistoric times to today's transplants and implants - with a glimpse into how modern surgery is likely to develop in the future. There are portraits of the great surgeons throughout the ages, detailed accounts of the milestones in the progress of the profession - the breaking of new ground and forming of solid bases from which the next generation of surgeons could advance to new and revolutionary techniques.

The Illustrated History of Surgery is a beautifully presented book, with more than 200 colour illustrations gathered from around the world; it tells the story of surgery in a way that is both intelligible and enthralling. ... Read more

Book Description

The atrocities committed by Nazi physicians and researchers during World War II prompted the development of the Nuremberg Code to define the ethics of modern medical experimentation utilizing human subjects. Since its enunciation, the Code has been viewed as one of the cornerstones of modern bioethical thought. The sources and ramifications of this important document are thoroughly discussed in this book by a distinguished roster of contemporary professionals from the fields of history, philosophy, medicine, and law. The book sheds light on keenly debated issues of both science and jurisprudence, including the ethics of human experimentation; the doctrine of informed consent; and the Code's impact on today's international human rights agenda. It provides stimulating, provocative reading for physicians, legal professionals, bioethicists, historians, biomedical researchers, and concerned laypersons. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Multi-faceted
This book is wonderful! It provides information on not only Nazis and their medical experiments, but the ethics (or the lack thereof) behind it all. It also delves into medical ethics in general, including the U.S.'s not so pleasant past. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in Nazi medical experiments or medical ethics. ... Read more

Book Description

Throughout history women have practiced the art of medicine and healing. Yet they have always faced difficulties in the medical profession--not only have they struggled to gain acceptance from their male colleagues, they have also struggled to find a balance between being a doctor and being a wife and mother. Here, in This Side of Doctoring Eliza Lo Chin offers a penetrating analysis of what it's like to be a woman in the highly competitive field of medicine. Written over the last century and a half, this collection of personal stories, poems, essays, and quotations reveals the intimate lives of over a hundred female physicians. There are touching testimonies from early 19th-century medical pioneers like Elizabeth Blackwell, the first woman to graduate from medical school and Harriet Hunt, who had her own practice that catered to women and children yet was never formally trained, to modern-day medical students and doctors. Poignant and compelling, these narratives offer insights into the struggles and triumphs of women in medicine. Much like an American quilt, this book is a unique and richly textured patchwork of each woman's extraordinary life and career. This assemblage of so many different voices exemplifies the varied paths that women have created within the medical profession. Together they stand as an enduring tribute to the dedication of all women physicians to both their patients and their families. ""These accounts of doctoring and family concerns are universal enough to transcend gender in relationships with patients and colleagues, balancing work and family, and finding meaning in one's profession.... For those looking for a compendium of experiences that document the lives of a diverse cross-section of women in US medicine, This Side of Doctoring is a fine addition to the literature.""--The Journal of the American Medical Association ... Read more

Reviews (5)

Wonderful anthology that tells "our" side of the story
Of course, in a book with this many contributors, the writing is a bit uneven. but the overall effect is wonderful. Actually, it is somewhat surprising that there is relatively little non-fiction about men physicians. About women, there is practically nothing. This volume tries to cover everything, from the first "lady" doctors to graduate from medical school to the multiple paths medical study takes now that about 50% of medical school classes are women. The pulls between family and practice are well described. Some women choose not to have children of their own. I was especially struck by the story of an orthopedic surgeon who sacrificed 20 years of her life to be one of the boys and then hit the glass ceiling with a crash. Fortunately, she found a good position at another academic center. How many do not? I loved the editor's poem, which both in form and in words illustrated the family/physician duality. There are too many to cite in a review. I recently talked to my daughter about how much I disliked the use of "female" doctor instead of woman doctor. She said, "Why don't you just call them "doctor?" I'm afraid we're not there yet. Women tend to crowd into psychiatry, pediatrics, and now internal medicine and even ob/gyn. This volume illustrates in many ways what we can hope is to be a total success story.

Excellent 150 year history of women in medicine.
This Side Of Doctoring: Reflections From Women In Medicine showcases a superbly presented and collection of stories, poems, and essays capturing what it means to be a female physician. Ranging from pioneering lady doctors to today's increasing numbers of women medical students, This Side Of Doctoring explores and reveals the struggles and triumphs of women in the past 150 years of western medicine. Included are intimate sketches of the contributors personal lives and experiences that seldom (if ever) appear in traditional, male oriented medical writings and histories. This Side Of Doctoring is strongly recommended for personal, professional, and academic reading lists and reference collections, especially in the areas and disciplines of Medical History and Women's Studies.

A wonderful resource and support for women physicians.
Having recently graduated residency with two young children, I couldn't stop reading this book. I want to plaster these essays on the cover of the Wall Street Journal: this is why medical training has to change! I am buying this book for all of my friends.

Essential resource for all women in medicine
This book is not only informative and enlightening but enjoyable and inspiring. There is something in this book for everyone, whether you are a medical student, premed, physician or retired physician. Historians, feminists and the medical community will also find this book invaluable. 'This Side of Doctoring' is like a time-capsule of women in medicine, from the days of pioneer Elizabeth Blackwell to female medical students today (who are also still pioneering change in medicine). Lo Chin has compiled the who, what, why, when and how of women doctors. The stories, essays, and especially poems, capture the spirit of women physicians past and present. With more than 100 women's stories, it accurately portrays the sacrifices and rewards of this challenging career. I especially enjoyed the chapters on mothering, the early pioneers and barriers to women in medicine. Because it is an anthology, you can digest at your own convenience, read one piece or a chapter, good for busy women like me! It is a book to which I will constantly refer.

This book touches deep longing for sisterhood.
As a recent med school graduate, I found this book to be enlightening on many fronts. I have wrestled with similar issues and have had to make my own hard choices about my career and life, while living with the guilt and self-doubt of my decisions. This book touched a nerve with me because it presents the many issues women in the field of medicine have to deal with daily, and for the rest of their lives from the perspective of women who have tread this path and understand the complex conflicts and possibilities of being a woman and being in medicine. I especially enjoyed the section on the early pioneers of woman in medicine, as well as sections written by doctors who faced much harder decisions in their time, and helped make the options available to today's modern med school graduate possible. My favorite part though, is the way the editor culled not just stories and histories from her contributors, but POEMS which evoke the emotional struggle of women in medicine, that many have had to repress and not face in their daily hectic time short juggling routine. I found myself forced to stop running on the treadmill of life and really reflect. Thank you for helping me to really reflect on my own life in medicine and for helping me honor and respect those who have made the joys of medicine and womanhood possible for everyone. ... Read more

Book Description

A fascinating work of detective history, The Black Death traces the causes and far-reaching consequences of this infamous outbreak of plague that spread across the continent of Europe from 1347 to 1351. Drawing on sources as diverse as monastic manuscripts and dendrochronological studies (which measure growth rings in trees), historian Robert S. Gottfried demonstrates how a bacillus transmitted by rat fleas brought on an ecological reign of terror -- killing one European in three, wiping out entire villages and towns, and rocking the foundation of medieval society and civilization. ... Read more

Reviews (12)

Great book on the Black Death
This is a fascinating book on the plague pandemics of the 14th century and the way they changed the world. After a very interesting description of some essential medical facts about the plague, such as where it came from, how it is transmitted and the effects the different strains have on the human body, Mr Gottfried describes how European society was conformed just prior to the outbreak. Then he proceeds to give a very detailed account of the advance of the epidemic throughout the Mediterranean Basin and the European Continent and the effects it had in different geographical areas. He also deals with the reactions of the clergy (both Muslim and Christian), the secular authorities and the people in general and proposes answers to some very interesting questions (why only 15% of the population of Nuremberg died while in Florence the mortality rate may have been as high as 75%?). After the immediate effects of the epidemic, where extensive quotes from contemporary sources are included, we get an analysis of the long term consequences and the the way the Black Death altered European society and culture for ever. This book is scholarly and well researched but also very accessible to the layman.

The Black Death: Natural and Human Disaster in Medieval Eur
This is not light bedtime reading. Rather, it appears to be a textbook masquerading as popular history. The book begins with an attempt to explain plague ecology. As an academic with a background in both history and ecology I found this section raised more questions than it answered. By the time Gottfried moved the plague from its endemic homes in Asia through 14th C Europe we knew what it was, how it moved, and were thoroughly saturated with facts about the purported and hypothetically actual mortality in every major city in Europe. But some things don't add up. If, for instance, the mortality rate for bubonic plague was 50%, and 50% of the population of Siena died in the first attack, then every man, woman, and child in Siena was infected. Even in an era of poor sanitation and relaxed attitudes toward personal hygiene, that strains our credulity.

The second half of the book is less tedious. Here Gottfried deals with the effects of the plague, on medicine, economics, government, sociology, and many other aspects of life in the late Middle Ages. This is history as it should be written, and it is hard to believe the same author wrote the overwhelmingly dull first half. My recommendation: buy this book only if you have an academic interest in the effects of the plague on pre-Renaissance European affairs.

a grim, thorough work on the Black Death
There has been nothing in modern medicine to parallel the devastation of the Plague. This books is not easy reading, not lightly touched upon history. More of a masquerading study presented as a historical work, with a dash of detective work tossed in. Gottfried sets the stage of the emergence of the plague, traces its thorough and relentless progress across Europe, drawing on a wealth of documents, such as church and tax records, records written in six different languages from poets, historians and physicians of the period.

He shows how the cycles of outbreak of plague beginning in 1347 and lasting over hundreds of year, nearly singlehandedly broke the spine of feudalism, even to challenged the papal authority of the church, and shook up medicine completely. He draws comparisons so you have a focal point to which you can wrap your mind around such as during the first major outbreak lasting four years, he estimate between 17 and 28 million souls died a horrible death, contrasting that to the causalities of World War I where 8 1/2 million died. His study shows the areas of cities and over population, where the sanitary conditions were nonexistent, the mortality rate ran to 40-50%, pointing out London suffered nearly 300 death daily in the Summer of 1349.

Civil authority nearly broke down as fear and panic seized the masses, bizarre cults appeared like the Flagellistic ones, that went from town to town whipping themselves as punishment for the sins of mankind. Many saw it as the end of the world, Dooms Day, the time for the second coming of Christ.

Gottfried recreates this nightmare world that serves as a warning for all generations in vivid detail.

I do wish he had gone more into the witch-craze beginning to sweep the lands, and how the Church's ordering of the killing of all cats, fearing they were witches or witches familiars strongly contributed to the spread of the plague.

sigh...maybe in another book...

Still a must for writers of this historical period.

An excellent accounting of the Black Death
In this work, Gottfried presents the reader with a fairly graphic and well-researched accounting of the Black Death. It was interesting to see not only how devastating the Black Death was, but also how resilient human populations are....even when faced with multiple population-depleting disasters. It was also quite interesting to see exactly how the Black Death changed society, and how it actually made life better for most of those who survived it. Probably my favorite chapter was the one that dealt with how it changed the entire medical profession. Whereas pre-plague, the citizenry relied on 1,000 year old texts, the failure of medicine to prevent or stop the plague brought about radical changes in how medicine was studied and practiced.

Ziegler said it better
For those who delight in derivation, try this. Or get Philip Ziegler's book on the same subject, which is miles better. ... Read more

Book Description

The first full biography of Nicholas Culpeper, the English seventeenth-century pioneer of herbal medicine whose actions and beliefs revolutionized medicine and medical practice

In the mid-seventeenth century, England was visited by the four horsemen of the apocalypse: a civil war that saw levels of slaughter not matched until the Somme; famine in a succession of failed harvests that reduced peasants to "anatomies"; epidemics to rival the Black Death; and infant mortality rates that emptied crowded households of their children. In the midst of these terrible times came Nicholas Culpeper's Herbal -- one of the most popular and enduring books ever published.

Culpeper was a virtual outcast from birth. Rebelling against a tyrannical grandfather and the prospect of a life in the Church, he abandoned his university education after a doomed attempt at elopement. Disinherited, he went to London, Milton's "city of refuge, the mansion house of liberty." There he was to find his vocation as an herbalist -- and as a revolutionary.

London's medical regime was then in the grip of the College of Physicians, a powerful body personified in the "immortal" William Harvey, anatomist, royal physician and discoverer of the circulation of the blood. Working in the underground world of religious sects, secret printing presses and unlicensed apothecary shops, Culpeper challenged this stronghold at the time it was reaching the very pinnacle of its power -- and in the process became part of the revolution that toppled a monarchy.

In a spellbinding narrative of impulse, romance and heroism, Benjamin Woolley vividly re-creates these momentous struggles and the roots of today's hopes and fears about the power of medical science, professional institutions and government. Heal Thyself tells the story of a medical rebel who took on the authorities and paid the price.

Book Description

Powerfully involving narrative and incisive detail, clarity and inherent drama: Blood offers in abundance the qualities that define the best popular science writing. Here is the sweeping story of a substance that has been feared, revered, mythologized, and used in magic and medicine from earliest times--a substance that has become the center of a huge, secretive, and often dangerous worldwide commerce.

Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, Blood was described by judges as "a gripping page-turner, a significant contribution to the history of medicine and technology and a cautionary tale. Meticulously reported and exhaustively documented."

Reviews (11)

epic yet concise
Although I defer to Mr.Haschka's expertise in the field of blood, I must take issue with his snippy comment about Mr.Starr's affinity for bad news. I found Blood to be well-balanced-- he labors mightily to present good news and noble accomplishments alongside the tales of negligence, ignorance, and good old-fashioned greed. Yes, he does report on the tainted blood in great depth but let's face it-- mistakes advance science as much as, or even more than, successes, and should be accorded the appropriate amount of space. As far as repetition is concerned, I admit that I haven't read Mr.Shilts' tome, but Blood is perfect for those of us who are interested in the HIV crisis in the larger context of the industry as a whole, and in light of earlier discoveries. The book lost me a bit in its lengthy discussion of the business complex, but the information is important in order to understand how the impact of new discoveries (and mistakes) are felt worldwide. The history of blood is nothing less than riveting, how mysticism and individual hubris has given way to science-- and how they have simultaneously coexisted and been at loggerheads ever since. A formidable subject, nicely covered in a single volume.

Cookies, juice and money
This book makes the history of medicine, especially blood, interesting, and accessible to anyone. It also exposes the blood industry, GOOD and BAD, with names and dates of the people who moved it along: the medics in World Wars who risked their lives, the brilliant and tempermental researchers, and the greedy. Starr gives you well-documented facts and lets the reader decide, as a good writer should, who is the bad guy. This book doesn't tug as much at your heartstrings as Bad Blood: Crisis in the American Red Cross by Judith Reitman, but that's by far an advantage. She would have you believe that just because people died (of AIDS, and Hepatitis), there must be someone in the blood industry at fault. There certainly is some fault to go around, but this book helps you decide who and why there is fault, and tells both sides of the story without leaving Reitman's huge empty gaps in the evidence.

Good book but makes many omissions
I borrowed this book from the library to help me with a lengthy article that I am writing on the history of blood banking. If I wasn't doing in-depth research, like combing through medical journals and scientific papers, I would have given this book 5 stars. However, Starr makes many omissions and skips vital facts, and I fail to understand why. For example, he credits Richard Lewisohn with discovering the use of sodium citrate, to keep blood from coagulating. However, nowhere does he mention that Lewisohn was not the first to use it in a successful transfusion. Two doctors published results right before he did, and another one gave a talk to the Nationl Acaademy of Sciences a month before Lewisohn published his results. Lewisohn is credited with finding the perfect formulation, and that is where credit is due. But Starr makes it seem that Lewisohn was the only one doing this research.

He completely leaves out the work of Rous and Turner, who first used glucose to expand the life of red blood cells--a necessity in blood banking. He also completely omitted WW I--amazing! That's when the very first blood depot was set up and stored blood was used for the first time.

I've found that he has embellished some personalities and downplayed others. He made it sound like no one was doing blood transfusions until Carrel's fateful night when he saved the baby, but in fact, they were being performed.

Anyway, this is a good book and I am surprised to find these glaring flaws in it. I found it useful as a background for my research, but I don't understand why he chose to write it this way.

Even human natural resources can be exploited
Intriguing compilation of facts about how the human natural resource called BLOOD can be exploited like any other. From the discovery of the different components of blood (in which he bravely sheds a different light on the popular urban legend of the death of African-American scientist Dr. Drew), to how greed and pride brought about the HIV tainted blood crisis, Starr weaves a very readable science tale.

Non-fiction at its best.
From to animal-human blood transfusions to the mobilizations of donated blood for Normandy to the battle for blood-as-commodity, this riveting, epic history of medicine and commerce promises to keep you reading all day and night. You will gain a new respect for the Red Cross and for modern medicine, and you will most likely rush out to donate blood after cringing through the pages describing the problems in the Blood Services Complex. Incredibly well-researched, fascinating and enlightening. ... Read more

Book Description

"Cinchona revolutionized the art of medicine as profoundly as gunpowder had the art of war."

-- Bernardino Ramazzini, Physician to the Duke of Modena, Opera omnia, medica, et physica, 1716

In the summer of 1623, ten cardinals and hundreds of their attendants died in Rome while electing a new pope. The Roman marsh fever that felled them was the scourge of the Mediterranean, northern Europe and even America.

Malaria, now known as a disease of the tropics, badly weakened the Roman Empire. It killed thousands of British troops fighting Napoleon in 1809 and many soldiers on both sides of the American Civil War. It turned back travelers exploring West Africa in the nineteenth century and brought the building of the Panama Canal to a standstill. Even today, malaria kills someone every thirty seconds. For more than one thousand years, there was no cure for it.

Pope Urban VIII, elected during the malarial summer of 1623, was determined that a cure should be found. He encouraged Jesuit priests establishing new missions in Asia and in South America to learn everything they could from the peoples they encountered. In Peru a young apothecarist named Agostino Salumbrino established an extensive network of pharmacies that kept the Jesuit missions in South America and Europe supplied with medicines. In 1631 Salumbrino dispatched a new miracle to Rome.

The cure was quinine, an alkaloid made of the bitter red bark of the cinchona tree. Europe's Protestants, among them Oliver Cromwell, who suffered badly from malaria, feared that the new cure was nothing but a Popish poison. More than any previous medicine, though, quinine forced physicians to change their ideas about illness. Before long, it would change the face of Western medicine.

Yet how was it that priests in the early seventeenth century–who did not know what malaria was or how it was transmitted–discovered that the bark of a tree that grew in the foothills of the Andes could cure a disease that occurred only on the other side of the ocean?

Using fresh research from the Vatican and the Indian archives in Seville, as well as documents she discovered in Peru, award-winning author Fiammetta Rocco chronicles the ravages of the disease; the quest of the three Englishmen who smuggled cinchona seeds out of South America; the way in which quinine opened the door to Western imperial adventure in Asia, Africa and beyond; and how, even today, quinine grown in the eastern Congo still saves the lives of so many suffering from malaria.

Reviews (4)

How can you write about the past without knowing the present
If you would write a book about economics would you visit your local bank manager to get all the background information? Would you think that it is sufficient to read your way through some archives? Probably not.
But this is what Rocco does to malaria. Rocco visits her childhood doctor in Kenya and spends a lot of time in archives to write about quinine. This may well be the safest and perhaps also the most comfortable approach to find the material for a book. And it could work for any subject, pianos in Berlin or cheese in Italy. Unfortunately what emerges is not a contemporary picture of the treatment of malaria or the history of malaria treatment but a rather skewed view on a historic niche. How can you try to understand the past if you don't know the present? If you care about some historical particularities, which pope had what malaria problem, written in beautiful English this is your book.

Bark, bugs and battles
This engaging account sketches the investigation and quest for a cure for the "mal 'aria" of Rome. "Mal 'aria" was once thought to emanate from the "bad air" of swamps and marshes. Rocco, herself a victim of this dread illness, narrates its impact from ancient times into the modern world. When the death of a pope brought 55 cardinals to Rome to replace Gregory XV, 10 of them had contracted malaria within two weeks. Those who survived returning to Sees in European nations spread further a malady already prevalent in many nations as distant as the British Isles and Scandinavia. Even as the papal successor, who was also prostrated with chills and fever, struggled to survive the infection, some of his minions were advocating a likely cure against great skepticism.

Jesuit missionaries in the New World discovered Native Americans using a powdered tree bark to treat fevers and "agues". Sending the powder back to Catholic Europe introduced the first therapy for malaria, probably just as these same interlopers were infesting the Western Hemisphere with the parasite. Cinchona powder, diluted in wine to cover its bitterness, verged on the miraculous. As Rocco describes its effect, she also recounts the resistance to the "Jesuit powder" in Protestant Europe, particularly Britain. Lack of enthusiasm, plus military ineptness, led to a malarial onslaught in 1808, when an English attempt to invade Napoleon's empire ended in disaster.

Empire, war and malaria remained in close company throughout the 19th Century. British incursions into west Africa were stalled by the infection. At one point the medical records indicated more cases of malaria than there were settlers - due to repeat hospital patients. Even against this severity, progress was being made. It's said "there's always one" and Rocco shows how one dedicated man made an immense difference. On a voyage up the Niger, Baikie imposed a strict daily regimen of quinine dosage. One of his crew was murdered and one drowned - but none were lost to malaria.

Returning to the Western Hemisphere, Rocco describes the inept handling of fevers by the in the American Civil War. Vicksburg, she asserts, failed to be taken due to the Union's lack of quinine for its troops investing the city. Even greater disaster awaited the French in their attempt to link the Atlantic and Pacific with a Panama Canal. Instead of treating the workers, the French merely hid the casualty list and hired replacements. Even as late as World War II, battlegrounds in the Pacific highlighted the need for plentiful supplies of quinine. By that time, however, some synthetics had been developed. Malaria, however, is neither easily diagnosed nor treated. Rocco notes that there are several versions of the illness, and many varieties of cinchona. Matching them takes skill.

At the end of the 19th Century, malaria had been identified as a parasite, not the effusion of swampy fumes. Rocco describes the labours of British Army doctor Ronald Ross, who laboured under appalling conditions in India. He traced the course of the parasite, in part by dissecting mosquitoes with a razor blade! This new understanding led to more directed treatment, and, ultimately, a Nobel Prize for Ross. Rocco's diagram of the life cycle of the parasite suggests the complexity of the problem of diagnosis and therapy.

Rocco concludes with a reminder that malaria identified is not malaria eliminated. It kills millions of children every year and prostrates whole communities. South American forests were denuded by exploiters seeking the bark. The synthetics developed proved a temporary solution since the parasite appears to have evolved resistance to them. Today's chief source of natural quinine is a threatened forest in war-torn central Africa. She describes the travails of a firm struggling to maintain supply. The picture would be encouraging if the firm obtained support from industrial nations. That hasn't been forthcoming.

Rocco's opening sentence, "My grandparents had been married for many years when they left Europe for Africa - although not to each other" sets the tone of this book. Her personalised narrative form skips the use of footnotes, but there are Notes on Sources and a Further Reading list. A collection of photos and maps adds reference. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

The Unwon Battle of Cinchona Against Malaria
The most devastating disease to humans has undoubtedly been malaria. Fiammetta Rocco is qualified to write about the disease. She has had it herself, and her father had it many times. Her grandparents kept a farm in Africa, and while it can be expected that there were plenty of diseases to bother or kill, malaria was the most prevalent. The story of the battle against malaria has been told many times, but since it combines science, the conquest of nations, and religion, it will always prove inexhaustible. In _The Miraculous Fever-Tree: Malaria and the Quest for a Cure that Changed the World_ (HarperCollins), Rocco has focused on the discovery, utilization, and culture of quinine, the drug that for centuries has brought some hope against the disease. That it has had to work for centuries, of course, means that the battle is far from won.

Perhaps the most malarious city in the world was Rome. It was said that the many marshes around the city provided "bad air" (how the disease gets its name), but of course they actually provided breeding grounds for the mosquitoes that spread it. When there was a convocation of cardinals, for the eventual election of Pope Urban VIII in 1623, there was a clash of politics, philosophies, and personalities, but the most worrisome aspect of the meeting was that one cardinal after another sickened and died. At just about that time cinchona bark started coming in. That it was a miracle cure is clear, and part of the wonder was that a constant scourge of Europe had a cure growing in dense forests in the mountains halfway around the world. Jesuit priests in missions in the Andes saw that natives used it to stop the shivers when exposed to dampness and cold, and when it was tried on malaria, not only did it work to ease the shivering, it took away the other symptoms of the disease. It became know as "Jesuit Powder," and Protestants protested against its use; it also seemed to contradict the humoral theory by which medicine was done at the time. Its efficacy meant that it would conquer such prejudices, but Rocco shows how in one world war after another, the medicine was not available to troops who needed it.

Malaria is still a killer, one person succumbing about every fifteen seconds. The pharmaceutical industry is generally uninterested in researching and producing medicines for tropical diseases, and the artificial substitutes for quinine have resulted in resistant strains. But surprisingly, the Jesuit Powder has barely sparked any resistance, and it still works. This detailed and fascinating book ends with the optimistic outlook for the company Pharmakina, based in the Congo, which is simply growing cinchona trees, harvesting the quinine, and selling it at affordable prices. Such an operation won't do for the big drug companies, but sensible profits from a reliable product represent good business. This is a reminder that for all the colorful and dramatic history of malaria and our efforts to treat it, the past is not as important as the future.

Splendid Overview Of The Search For Malaria's Cure
Fiammetta Rocco's "The Miraculous Fever-Tree" is yet another contemporary example of the popular science treatise exemplified by Dava Sobel's "Longitude" and Simon Winchester's "Krakatoa" and "The Map That Changed The World". Ms. Rocco, the literary editor of the Economist, takes us on a globe-spanning, centuries-long odyssey in search of Malaria's cure, quinine, distilled from the bark of the South American cinchona tree. It is a moving, elegant look at the age of discovery and exploration, vividly recounting how the discovery and use of cinchona bark, and then later, its chemical derivative, quinine, allowed Western imperial states such as Spain and Great Britain to colonize vast tracts of South America, Africa and Asia. She also offers a fascinating glimpse into malaria's deadly impact on Allied and Axis military forces during World War Two. And she elegantly weaves in her own personal struggle with malaria, which she contracted during her late adolescence/early adulthood in Kenya. Rocco's crisp prose is as eloquent as those from Sobel and Winchester. Without question, this is among the finest books on popular science and medicine published in the past year. ... Read more

Book Description

Book Description

Making Sense of Illness is a fascinating investigation into the social and clinical factors that determine what constitutes a "legitimate" illness in the twentieth century.By examining six case studies of diseases that have emerged within the past fifty years--from what we now consider to be "straightforward" diseases such as coronary heart disease, to the currently widely-debated Chronic Fatigue Syndrome--Aronowitz examines the historical and cultural factors that influence how doctors think about illness; how illnesses are recognized, named, classified, and finally, what they "mean" in an individual and social context. The choices that are available to the investigators, clinicians, patients and the processes by which change occurs are factors that all play a great role in "legitimizing" an illness, and these are the roles that are seldom examined. By juxtaposing the histories of each disease, Aronowitz shows how cultural and historical precedents have determined research programs, public health activities, clinical decisions, and even the patient's experience of illness. This is a must-read for anyone interested in public health and the history of medicine in the United States. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Making sense makes sense
This is a clearly thought out and clearly written discourse on how the forces that define and sanction "disease" are strong and operative within social, economic, and historical contexts. Taking such diseases as polio and lyme disease Aronowitz nicely traces these forces at work. His section on caridiology and the evolution of risk factors and Type A personality as similar social constructions and their impact is truly exquisite. Sensibility and perspective without hype or shallow ridicule. ... Read more

Book Description

Overcoming suspicion, ridicule, and outright opposition from the American Medical Association, the osteopathic medical profession today serves the health needs of more than thirty million Americans. The DOs chronicles the development of this controversial medical movement from the nineteenth century to the present. Historian Norman Gevitz describes the philosophy and practice of osteopathy, as well as its impact on medical care. From the theories underlying the use of spinal manipulation developed by osteopathy's founder, Andrew Taylor Still, Gevitz traces the movement's early success, despite attacks from the orthodox medical community, and details the internal struggles to broaden osteopathy's scope to include the full range of pharmaceuticals and surgery. He also recounts the efforts of osteopathic colleges to achieve parity with institutions granting M.D. degrees and looks at the continuing effort by osteopathic physicians and surgeons to achieve greater recognition and visibility.

In print continuously since 1982, The DOs has now been thoroughly updated and expanded to include two new chapters addressing recent and current challenges and to bring the history of the profession up to the beginning of the new millennium. ... Read more

Book Description

The Normal and the Pathological is one of the crucial contributions to the history of science in the last half century. ... Read more

Book Description

Punctuated with remarkable case studies, this book explores extraordinary encounters between hermaphrodites -- people born with "ambiguous" sexual anatomy -- and the medical and scientific professionals who were confronted by them. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

an important book
I consider myself an "enlightened" feminist and of course I believe that gender is socially constructed, but I still had a lot to learn from this book. It's not just that gender is socially constructed, but sex itself: nothing is "natural." Nothing -- not chromasomes, genitals, nor secondary sex characteristics like breasts, facial hair, body hair, and voice -- has meaning until we ascribe it a meaning. Doctors and the medical profession have participated in the social construction of gender and sex by creating the hermaphrodite as a monstrosity that deviates from binary norms rather than as a part of a continuum of sex and gender.

Dreger's book focuses on the collision of hermaphrodites with the medical profession in 19th century Britain and France, a time period when feminists and homosexuals were beginning to challenge sexual boundries. Dreger sucessfully balences stories of individuals with the larger social context. Also, she never resorts to euphemisms, and the accompanying photographs are something that is missing from the standard human anatomy textbook. We should see and appreciate humanity in all its infinite variety and not force anyone to conform to a constructed "norm."

Dreger's final chapter explores the plight of the intersexed in contemporary America. If we are truely to "celebrate diversity," we are going to have to become educated about the millions of intersexed in this country and become sensitive to their issues... because they are issues that concern us all.

Amazing!
This book is wonderful! It gives a tremendous amount of insight to the intersexed. A must for anyone interested in the history of sexuality.

Exposes cultural imperative disguised as medical necessity
The history of the clinical management of intersex has previously been relegated to medical texts- texts which illuminate technologies to "treat" intersex while ignoring the experience of the recipients of such protocols. Alice Dreger's book unveils the identities of those who heretofore have appeared in textbook photographs and illustrations with their genitals in sharp focus but with their faces obscured. In the process, Dreger reveals how medicine has often tragically subordinated what is between the patient's ears and in the patient's heart to what is between the patient's legs. While physicians would be well-served to incorporate the information and perspectives Dreger offers, the book should appeal to a far larger audience because it challenges the reader's assumption that sex is like Carvel (two flavors only) when in reality it is Baskins & Robbins. ... Read more