The untold story of the discovery of the first wonder drug, the men who led the way, and how it changed the modern world The discovery of penicillin in 1928 ushered in a new age in medicine. But it took a team of Oxford scientists headed by Howard Florey and Ernst Chain four more years to...  more

The untold story of the discovery of the first wonder drug, the men who led the way, and how it changed the modern world The discovery of penicillin in 1928 ushered in a new age in medicine. But it took a team of Oxford scientists headed by Howard Florey and Ernst Chain four more years to develop it as the first antibiotic, and the most important family of drugs in the twentieth century. At once the world was transformed—major bacterial scourges such as blood poisoning and pneumonia, scarlet fever and diphtheria, gonorrhea and syphilis were defeated as penicillin helped to foster not only a medical revolution but a sexual one as well. In his wonderfully engaging book, acclaimed author Eric Lax tells the real story behind the discovery and why it took so long to develop the drug. He reveals the reasons why credit for penicillin was misplaced, and why this astonishing achievement garnered a Nobel Prize but no financial rewards for Alexander Fleming, Florey, and his team. The Mold in Dr. Florey’s Coat is the compelling story of the passage of medicine from one era to the next and of the eccentric individuals whose participation in this extraordinary accomplishment has, until now, remained largely unknown.

In the winter of 1918, at the height of WWI, history’s most lethal influenza virus erupted in an army camp in Kansas, moved east with American troops, then exploded, killing as many as 100 million people worldwide. It killed more people in twenty-four weeks than AIDS has killed in...  more

In the winter of 1918, at the height of WWI, history’s most lethal influenza virus erupted in an army camp in Kansas, moved east with American troops, then exploded, killing as many as 100 million people worldwide. It killed more people in twenty-four weeks than AIDS has killed in twenty-four years, more in a year than the Black Death killed in a century. But this was not the Middle Ages, and 1918 marked the first collision of science and epidemic disease. Magisterial in its breadth of perspective and depth of research, John M. Barry weaves together multiple narratives, with characters ranging from William Welch (founder of Johns Hopkins Medical School) to John D. Rockefeller and Woodrow Wilson. Ultimately a tale of triumph amid tragedy, this crisis provides a precise and sobering model for our world as we confront AIDS, bioterrorism, and other, as yet unknown, diseases.

Late in the summer of 1880, a wave of odors emanated from the sewers of Paris. As the stench lingered, outraged residents feared that the foul air would breed an epidemic.Fifteen years later -- when the City of Light was in the grips of another Great Stink -- the landscape of health and disease...  more

Late in the summer of 1880, a wave of odors emanated from the sewers of Paris. As the stench lingered, outraged residents feared that the foul air would breed an epidemic.Fifteen years later -- when the City of Light was in the grips of another Great Stink -- the landscape of health and disease had changed dramatically. Parisians held their noses and protested, but this time few feared that the odors would spread disease. Historian David S. Barnes examines the birth of a new microbe-centered science of public health during the 1880s and 1890s, when the germ theory of disease burst into public consciousness. Tracing a series of developments in French science, medicine, politics, and culture, Barnes reveals how the science and practice of public health changed during the heyday of the Bacteriological Revolution.Despite its many innovations, however, the new science of germs did not entirely sweep away the older "sanitarian" view of public health. The longstanding conviction that disease could be traced to filthy people, places, and substances remained strong, even as it was translated into the language of bacteriology. Ultimately, the attitudes of physicians and the French public were shaped by political struggles between republicans and the clergy, by aggressive efforts to educate and "civilize" the peasantry, and by long-term shifts in the public's ability to tolerate the odor of bodily substances. This fascinating study sheds new light on the scientific and social factors that continue to influence the public's lingering uncertainty over how disease can -- and cannot -- be spread.

In the early nineteenth century, body snatching was rife because the only corpses available for medical study were those of hanged murderers. With the Anatomy Act of 1832, however, the bodies of those who died destitute in workhouses were appropriated for dissection. At a time when such a...  more

In the early nineteenth century, body snatching was rife because the only corpses available for medical study were those of hanged murderers. With the Anatomy Act of 1832, however, the bodies of those who died destitute in workhouses were appropriated for dissection. At a time when such a procedure was regarded with fear and revulsion, the Anatomy Act effectively rendered dissection a punishment for poverty. Providing both historical and contemporary insights, Death, Dissection, and the Destitute opens rich new prospects in history and history of science. The new afterword draws important parallels between social and medical history and contemporary concerns regarding organs for transplant and human tissue for research.

Leading experts explain infectious disease in an illustrated companion to the acclaimed American Museum of Natural History's exhibit. Epidemic! explores the world of infectious disease with essays by Nobel Prize-winning experts, profiles of scientists and researchers, and case studies. Written...  more

Leading experts explain infectious disease in an illustrated companion to the acclaimed American Museum of Natural History's exhibit. Epidemic! explores the world of infectious disease with essays by Nobel Prize-winning experts, profiles of scientists and researchers, and case studies. Written for the general reader, Epidemic! offers a clear understanding of the threat of infectious diseases, from the flu and mad cow disease to HIV and tuberculosis. Leaders of organizations such as the Centers for Disease Control cover topics from controlling outbreaks and the emergence of new diseases to the problem of drug resistance. Individual case studies explore disease around the world, including the work of Doctors Without Borders, the cultural dimension of malaria, solving the riddle of cholera, and the race to find the AIDS virus. Published to coincide with the American Museum of Natural History's new traveling exhibit called "the most impressive and informative exhibition the Museum has mounted in years" (New York Times), this book illustrates the important issues of diagnosis, treatment, and prevention throughout history and across cultures with more than eighty photographs and images. A resource section includes lists of organizations and Web sites, an annotated bibliography, and a glossary. Examining infectious disease from a natural history perspective, Epidemic! allows us to understand one of the most critical issues of the coming millennium.

The Conquest of Epidemic Disease is a classic study in the history of medicine and public health.

From its appearance in Europe at the end of the fifteenth century until its cure with the discovery of penicillin, syphilis has inspired wildly varying--and culturally revealing--theories about its origin, nature, and treatment. In The History of Syphilis, Claude Quétel chronicles five...  more

From its appearance in Europe at the end of the fifteenth century until its cure with the discovery of penicillin, syphilis has inspired wildly varying--and culturally revealing--theories about its origin, nature, and treatment. In The History of Syphilis, Claude Quétel chronicles five centuries of medical detective work and official management of a virulent disease that quickly became a cultural phenomenon. Quétel's study is a reminder that modern medical science grew not only from inspired genius but also from desperate speculation. Drawing parallels with the current medical and social campaigns against AIDS, Quétel notes that the history of syphilis has a surprisingly contemporary resonance."Quétel argues that the war against syphilis was never mainly between science and disease. From the very beginning, it was waged between those who sought to preserve syphilis as a scourge on sinners and those who sought its cure."-- Wilson Quarterly"In its relation to sex and sin, Quétel demonstrates, syphilis was perhaps the archetypical social disease. The strength of this history is that the author portrays physicians and public officials in a broad social context as they tried to counter popular views of syphilis as being shameful and frightening... Demonstrates that our present concern with AIDS has not shifted this debate significantly." --Journal of the History of Sexuality"This book is two books in one. It traces the history of the medical conceptualizations of syphilis and the attendant therapies for the disease from its first appearance in Europe during the 1490s until the present. But it also charts the cultural representations of syphilis over a period of five hundred years. Contemporary French scholars excel in the study of this aspect of medical history, and Claude Quétel is clearly among the finest."-- Historian

This brilliant work of social history reveals the hidden impact of syphilis on many of history's famous figures--from Wilde to Hitler to Abraham Lincoln--and its influence on the culture they created. Was Beethoven experiencing syphilitic euphoria when he composed "Ode to Joy"? Did van Gogh...  more

This brilliant work of social history reveals the hidden impact of syphilis on many of history's famous figures--from Wilde to Hitler to Abraham Lincoln--and its influence on the culture they created. Was Beethoven experiencing syphilitic euphoria when he composed "Ode to Joy"? Did van Gogh paint "Crows Over the Wheatfield" in a fit of diseased madness right before he shot himself? Was syphilis a stowaway on Columbus's return voyage to Europe? The answers to these provocative questions are likely "yes," claims Deborah Hayden in this riveting investigation of the effects of the "Pox" on the lives and works of world figures from the fifteenth through the twentieth centuries. Writing with remarkable insight and narrative flair, Hayden argues that biographers and historians have vastly underestimated the influence of what Thomas Mann called "this exhilarating yet wasting disease." Shrouded in secrecy, syphilis was accompanied by wild euphoria and suicidal depression, megalomania and paranoia, profoundly affecting sufferers' worldview, their sexual behavior and personality, and, of course, their art. Deeply informed and courageously argued, Pox has already been heralded as a major contribution to our understanding of genius, madness, and creativity.

The ravages of smallpox - once mankind's most feared scourge - have changed the course of history.  This book tells the astonishing story of this dread infection, recounting its devasting effect on the prosperousand the poor in every inhabited continent, from its suspected prehistoric...  more

The ravages of smallpox - once mankind's most feared scourge - have changed the course of history.  This book tells the astonishing story of this dread infection, recounting its devasting effect on the prosperousand the poor in every inhabited continent, from its suspected prehistoric origins to its eradication  by the World Health organization in 1977.

The world has, rapidly, become much more vulnerable to the eruption and, more critically, to the widespread and even global spread of both new and old infectious diseases. This new and heightened vulnerability is not mysterious. The dramatic increases in worldwide movement of people, goods, and...  more

The world has, rapidly, become much more vulnerable to the eruption and, more critically, to the widespread and even global spread of both new and old infectious diseases. This new and heightened vulnerability is not mysterious. The dramatic increases in worldwide movement of people, goods, and ideas is the driving force behind the globalization of disease. For not only do people travel increasingly, bu they travel much more rapidly, and go to many more places than ever before. A person harboring a life-threatening microbe can easily board a jet plane and be on another continent when the symptoms of the illness strike. The jet plane, itself, and its cargo can carry insects bringing infectious agents into new ecologic settings. Few habitats on the globe remain truly isolated or untouched, as tourists and other travelers can penetrate into the most remote and previously inaccessible areas in their search for new vistas, businesses, or recreation.

From the ravages of the Ebola virus in Zaire to outbreaks of pneumonic plague in India and drug-resistant TB in New York City, contagious diseases are fighting back against once-unconquerable modern medicine. Public concern about infectious disease is on the rise as newspapers trumpet the...  more

From the ravages of the Ebola virus in Zaire to outbreaks of pneumonic plague in India and drug-resistant TB in New York City, contagious diseases are fighting back against once-unconquerable modern medicine. Public concern about infectious disease is on the rise as newspapers trumpet the arrivals of new germs and the reemergence of old ones. In A Field Guide to Germs, Pulitzer Prize-winning science writer Wayne Biddle brings readers face to face with nearly one hundred of the best-known (in terms of prevalence, power, historical importance, or even literary interest) of the myriad pathogens that live in and around the human population. Along with physical descriptions of the organisms and the afflictions they cause, the author provides folklore, philosophy, history, and such illustrations as nineteenth century drawings of plague-induced panic, microscopic photographs of HIV and Ebola, and wartime posters warning servicemen against syphilis and gonorrhea. From cholera to chlamydia, TB to HIV, bubonic plague to Lyme disease, rabies to Congo-Crimean encephalitis, anthrax to Zika fever, and back to good old rhinitis (the common cold), A Field Guide to Germs is both a handy reference work to better understand today's headlines and a fascinating look at the astonishing impact of micro-organisms on social and political history.

When Rats, Lice and History appeared in 1935, Hans Zinsser was a highly regarded Harvard biologist who had never written about historical events. Although he had published under a pseudonym, virtually all of his previous writings had dealt with infections and immunity and had appeared either in...  more

When Rats, Lice and History appeared in 1935, Hans Zinsser was a highly regarded Harvard biologist who had never written about historical events. Although he had published under a pseudonym, virtually all of his previous writings had dealt with infections and immunity and had appeared either in medical and scientific journals or in book format. Today he is best remembered as the author of Rats, Lice, and History, which gone through multiple editions and remains a masterpiece of science writing for a general readership. To Zinsser, scientific research was high adventure and the investigation of infectious disease, a field of battle. Yet at the same time he maintained a love of literature and philosophy. His goal in Rats, Lice and History was to bring science, philosophy, and literature together to establish the importance of disease, and especially epidemic infectious disease, as a major force in human affairs. Zinsser cast his work as the "biography" of a disease. In his view, infectious disease simply represented an attempt of a living organism to survive. From a human perspective, an invading pathogen was abnormal; from the perspective of the pathogen it was perfectly normal. This book is devoted to a discussion of the biology of typhus and history of typhus fever in human affairs. Zinsser begins by pointing out that the louse was the constant companion of human beings. Under certain conditions-failure to wash or to change clothing-lice proliferated. The typhus pathogen was transmitted by rat fleas to human beings, who then transmitted it to other humans and in some strains from human to human. Rats, Lice and History is a tour de force. It combines Zinsser's expertise in biology with his broad knowledge of the humanities Hans Zinsser (1878-1940) received his doctorate at Columbia University and also was an instructor of bacteriology at Columbia University. Throughout his career he was also a professor at Stanford University as well as Harvard University. His scientific work focused on bacteriology and immunology and he is greatly associated with Brill's disease as well as typhus.

Did food poisoning cause the Black Plague, the Salem witch-hunts and other significant events in human history? In this pathbreaking book, the author argues that epidemics, sporadic outbursts of bizarre behavior, and low fertility and high death rates from the fourteenth to the eighteenth...  more

Did food poisoning cause the Black Plague, the Salem witch-hunts and other significant events in human history? In this pathbreaking book, the author argues that epidemics, sporadic outbursts of bizarre behavior, and low fertility and high death rates from the fourteenth to the eighteenth centuries may have been caused by food poisoning from microfungi in bread, the staple food in Europe and America during this period.

Since the isolation of the first virus in 1892 scientists have made tremendous advances by asking one question at a time and building on the answers. Dr. Levine celebrates the successes that have come from viral studies -- the development of a wide range of vaccines, the eradication of smallpox,...  more

Since the isolation of the first virus in 1892 scientists have made tremendous advances by asking one question at a time and building on the answers. Dr. Levine celebrates the successes that have come from viral studies -- the development of a wide range of vaccines, the eradication of smallpox, and the insights into the origins of cancer. He also examines the challenges we still face, with a series of interconnected chapters on the specific viruses behind some of our most urgent public health problems, including the viruses that cause AIDS, influenza, herpes and hepatitis. A concluding chapter on the origin and evolution of viruses touches on some of the most provocative issues in molecular biology today. Viral infections continue to be an immediate health concern of imposing proportions. "Viruses" is written for the general reader eager to know how we study and confront these diseases and where today's research may lead.

Even as humanity reels beneath the assault of AIDS, epidemiologists are gearing themselves up for the plague's successor. It might be dengue fever, whose carrier, the Asian tiger mosquito, has recently appeared in the United States, or Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, which has been transmitted by...  more

Even as humanity reels beneath the assault of AIDS, epidemiologists are gearing themselves up for the plague's successor. It might be dengue fever, whose carrier, the Asian tiger mosquito, has recently appeared in the United States, or Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, which has been transmitted by contaminated human growth hormone. The next pandemic might be caused by any of a dozen viruses that were once confined to other species or territories but now place human beings at risk as we increasingly cross their boundaries. Updated to include the latest research and developments, this fascinating and sometimes unsetting book sums up all that we currently know about viruses: what they are, how they spread, and how scientists are trying to outwit them. Interweaving theory and real-life medical drama, A Dancing Matrix is science reportage at its most suspenseful and informative.

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...  more

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.

Upon its original publication, Plagues and Peoples was an immediate critical and popular success, offering a radically new interpretation of world history as seen through the extraordinary impact--political, demographic, ecological, and psychological--of disease on cultures. From the conquest of...  more

Upon its original publication, Plagues and Peoples was an immediate critical and popular success, offering a radically new interpretation of world history as seen through the extraordinary impact--political, demographic, ecological, and psychological--of disease on cultures. From the conquest of Mexico by smallpox as much as by the Spanish, to the bubonic plague in China, to the typhoid epidemic in Europe, the history of disease is the history of humankind. With the identification of AIDS in the early 1980s, another chapter has been added to this chronicle of events, which William McNeill explores in his new introduction to this updated editon. Thought-provoking, well-researched, and compulsively readable, Plagues and Peoples is that rare book that is as fascinating as it is scholarly, as intriguing as it is enlightening.

Cholera was the classic epidemic disease of the nineteenth century, as the plague had been for the fourteenth. Its defeat was a reflection not only of progress in medical knowledge but of enduring changes in American social thought. Rosenberg has focused his study on New York City, the most...  more

Cholera was the classic epidemic disease of the nineteenth century, as the plague had been for the fourteenth. Its defeat was a reflection not only of progress in medical knowledge but of enduring changes in American social thought. Rosenberg has focused his study on New York City, the most highly developed center of this new society. Carefully documented, full of descriptive detail, yet written with an urgent sense of the drama of the epidemic years, this narrative is as absorbing for general audiences as it is for the medical historian. In a new Afterword, Rosenberg discusses changes in historical method and concerns since the original publication of The Cholera Years."A major work of interpretation of medical and social thought . . . this volume is also to be commended for its skillful, absorbing presentation of the background and the effects of this dread disease."--I.B. Cohen, New York Times"The Cholera Years is a masterful analysis of the moral and social interest attached to epidemic disease, providing generally applicable insights into how the connections between social change, changes in knowledge and changes in technical practice may be conceived."--Steven Shapin, Times Literary Supplement"In a way that is all too rarely done, Rosenberg has skillfully interwoven medical, social, and intellectual history to show how medicine and society interacted and changed during the 19th century. The history of medicine here takes its rightful place in the tapestry of human history."--John B. Blake, Science

A fascinating account of vaccination's miraculous, inflammatory past and its uncertain future.In 1796, as smallpox ravaged Europe, Edward Jenner injected a child with a benign version of the disease, then exposed the child to the deadly virus itself. The boy proved resistant to smallpox, and...  more

A fascinating account of vaccination's miraculous, inflammatory past and its uncertain future.In 1796, as smallpox ravaged Europe, Edward Jenner injected a child with a benign version of the disease, then exposed the child to the deadly virus itself. The boy proved resistant to smallpox, and Jenner's risky experiment produced the earliest vaccination. In this deftly written account, journalist Arthur Allen reveals a history of vaccination that is both illuminated with hope and shrouded by controversy—from Jenner's discovery to Pasteur's vaccines for rabies and cholera, to those that safeguarded the children of the twentieth century, and finally to the tumult currently surrounding vaccination.Faced with threats from anthrax to AIDS, we are a vulnerable population and can no longer depend on vaccines; numerous studies have linked childhood vaccination with various neurological disorders, and our pharmaceutical companies are more attracted to the profits of treatment than to the prevention of disease. With narrative grace and investigative journalism, Allen explores our shifting understanding of vaccination since its creation. 16 pages of illustrations.

Here David Oshinsky tells the gripping story of the polio terror and of the intense effort to find a cure, from the March of Dimes to the discovery of the Salk and Sabin vaccines--and beyond. Drawing on newly available papers of Jonas Salk, Albert Sabin and other key players, Oshinsky paintsa...  more

Here David Oshinsky tells the gripping story of the polio terror and of the intense effort to find a cure, from the March of Dimes to the discovery of the Salk and Sabin vaccines--and beyond. Drawing on newly available papers of Jonas Salk, Albert Sabin and other key players, Oshinsky paintsa suspenseful portrait of the race for the cure, weaving a dramatic tale centered on the furious rivalry between Salk and Sabin. He also tells the story of Isabel Morgan, perhaps the most talented of all polio researchers, who might have beaten Salk to the prize if she had not retired to raise afamily.Oshinsky offers an insightful look at the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, which was founded in the 1930s by FDR and Basil O'Connor, it revolutionized fundraising and the perception of disease in America. Oshinsky also shows how the polio experience revolutionized the way in which thegovernment licensed and tested new drugs before allowing them on the market, and the way in which the legal system dealt with manufacturers' liability for unsafe products. Finally, and perhaps most tellingly, Oshinsky reveals that polio was never the raging epidemic portrayed by the media, but intruth a relatively uncommon disease. But in baby-booming America--increasingly suburban, family-oriented, and hygiene-obsessed--the specter of polio, like the specter of the atomic bomb, soon became a cloud of terror over daily life. Both a gripping scientific suspense story and a provocative social and cultural history, Polio opens a fresh window onto postwar America.

Stephen Halliday, one of the foremost authorities on the Victorian city, tells the story of how pioneering scientists, engineers and doctors overcame three of the deadliest diseases rife in Victorian Britain: cholera, typhoid and puerperal fever.It is a dramatic and colourful story, with strong...  more

Stephen Halliday, one of the foremost authorities on the Victorian city, tells the story of how pioneering scientists, engineers and doctors overcame three of the deadliest diseases rife in Victorian Britain: cholera, typhoid and puerperal fever.It is a dramatic and colourful story, with strong characters caught up in a literally life and death struggle to understand the causes of these most deadly diseases.

The New York Times bestseller, now available in paperback with an all-new afterword by the author.Love them or loathe them, rats are here to stay-they are city dwellers as much as (or more than) we are, surviving on the effluvia of our society. In Rats, the critically acclaimed bestseller,...  more

The New York Times bestseller, now available in paperback with an all-new afterword by the author.Love them or loathe them, rats are here to stay-they are city dwellers as much as (or more than) we are, surviving on the effluvia of our society. In Rats, the critically acclaimed bestseller, Robert Sullivan spends a year investigating a rat-infested alley just a few blocks away from Wall Street. Sullivan gets to know not just the beast but its friends and foes: the exterminators, the sanitation workers, the agitators and activists who have played their part in the centuries-old war between human city dweller and wild city rat. Sullivan looks deep into the largely unrecorded history of the city and its masses-its herds-of-rats-like mob. Funny, wise, sometimes disgusting but always compulsively readable, Rats earns its unlikely place alongside the great classics of nature writing.

In 1831, an unknown, horrifying and deadly disease from Asia swept across Continental Europe, killing millions in its path and throwing the medical profession into confusion. Cholera is a killer with little respect for class or wealth. When it arrived in Britain, its repercussions rocked...  more

In 1831, an unknown, horrifying and deadly disease from Asia swept across Continental Europe, killing millions in its path and throwing the medical profession into confusion. Cholera is a killer with little respect for class or wealth. When it arrived in Britain, its repercussions rocked Victorian England - from the filthy lanes of the Sunderland quayside and the squalid streets of Soho, to the great centres of power: the Privy Council, Whitehall and, the Royal Medical Colleges. One man - alone and unrecognised - uncovered the truth behind the pandemic and laid the foundations for the modern, scientific investigation of today's fatal plagues. John Snow was a reclusive doctor, without money or social position, who had the genius to look beyond the conventional wisdom of his day, and work out that cholera was spread through drinking water. The book draws extensively on 19th century medical, political and personal records in order to describe what is both an important breakthrough for medical science and also a dramatic story with a cast of colourful characters, from the heroic to the frighteningly incompetent. The book is also full of fascinating diversions into aspects of medical and social history - from Snow's tending of Queen Victoria in childbirth, to the Dutch microbiologist Leeuwenhoek's deliberately breeding of lice in his socks; and, from Dickensian children's farms to riotous 19th century anaesthesia parties.

Tuberculosis -- once the cause of as many as one in five deaths in the U.S. -- crossed all boundaries of class and gender, but the methods of treatment for men and women differed radically. While men were encouraged to go out to sea or to the open country, women were expected to stay at home,...  more

Tuberculosis -- once the cause of as many as one in five deaths in the U.S. -- crossed all boundaries of class and gender, but the methods of treatment for men and women differed radically. While men were encouraged to go out to sea or to the open country, women were expected to stay at home, surrounded by family, to anticipate a lingering death. Several women, however, chose rather to head for the drier climates of the West and build new lives on their own. But with the discovery of the tubercle bacillus in 1882 and the establishment of sanatoriums, both men and women were relegated to lives of seclusion, sacrificing autonomy for the prospect of a cure.In Living in the Shadow of Death Sheila Rothman presents the story of tuberculosis from the perspective of those who suffered, and in doing so helps us to understand the human side of the disease -- and to cope with its resurgence. The letters, diaries, and journals piece together what it was like to experience tuberculosis, and eloquently reveal the tenacity and resolve with which people faced it."A fascinating and powerful book... compelling reading. Tuberculosis was a disease, now reemerging, that killed more Americans, young or old, rich or poor, than any other disease, until well into the twentieth century. It shaped our culture, determined careers, blighted lives. Rothman writes beautifully and with great sensitivity about the human condition. The book will, I believe, become a classic in the field." -- David E. Rodgers, Cornell Medical College

Between 1347 and 1359, the Black Death killed at least one third of Europes inhabitants. Sweeping from Asia into Europe, where it's more appalling by-products included the flagellants and the first great Jewish pogroms, the plague reached England in 1348. Philip Zeigler's classic account...  more

Between 1347 and 1359, the Black Death killed at least one third of Europes inhabitants. Sweeping from Asia into Europe, where it's more appalling by-products included the flagellants and the first great Jewish pogroms, the plague reached England in 1348. Philip Zeigler's classic account traces the course of the plague through Europe, and includes detailed chapters on the state of medicine, the position of the Church, and the broader social and economic repercussions, as well as a fascinating reconstruction of life in a medieval English village suddenly overtaken by plague.

The end of a scourge "The prayer that has been mine for twenty years, that I might be permitted in some way or some time to do something to alleviate human suffering, has been answered!" —Major Walter Reed, writing to his wife, New Year's Eve, 1900 As he wrote to his wife of...  more

The end of a scourge "The prayer that has been mine for twenty years, that I might be permitted in some way or some time to do something to alleviate human suffering, has been answered!" —Major Walter Reed, writing to his wife, New Year's Eve, 1900 As he wrote to his wife of his stunning success in the mission to identify the cause of yellow fever and find a way to eradicate the disease, Walter Reed had answered the prayers of millions. For more than 250 years, the yellow jack had ravaged the Americas, bringing death to millions and striking panic in entire populations. The very mention of its presence in a city or town produced instant chaos as thousands fled in terror, leaving the frail, the weak, and the ill to fend for themselves. Yellow Jack tracks the history of this deadly scourge from its earliest appearance in the Caribbean 350 years ago, telling the compelling story of a few extraordinarily brave souls who struggled to understand and eradicate yellow fever. Risking everything for the cause of science and humanity, Reed and his teammates on the U.S. Army Yellow Fever Board invaded the heart of enemy territory in Cuba to pursue the disease—and made one of the twentieth century's greatest medical discoveries. This thrilling adventure tells the timeless tale of their courage, ingenuity, and triumph in the face of adversity.

An innovative, interdisciplinary study of why leprosy, a disease with a very low level of infection, has repeatedly provoked revulsion and fear. Rod Edmond explores, in particular, how these reactions were refashioned in the modern colonial period. Beginning as a medical history, the book...  more

An innovative, interdisciplinary study of why leprosy, a disease with a very low level of infection, has repeatedly provoked revulsion and fear. Rod Edmond explores, in particular, how these reactions were refashioned in the modern colonial period. Beginning as a medical history, the book broadens into an examination of how Britain and its colonies responded to the believed spread of leprosy. Across the empire this involved isolating victims of the disease in 'colonies', often on offshore islands. Discussion of the segregation of lepers is then extended to analogous examples of this practice, which, it is argued, has been an essential part of the repertoire of colonialism in the modern period. The book also examines literary representations of leprosy in Romantic, Victorian and twentieth-century writing, and concludes with a discussion of traveller-writers such as R. L. Stevenson and Graham Greene who described and fictionalised their experience of staying in a leper colony.