EXPLORERS OF THE BODY

by Steve Lehrer ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 11, 1979

It's all here from the Ebers Papyrus over two millennia B.C. to an epilogue with posers about drug-resistant bacteria, runaway viruses, transplanted brains, and longevity drugs. This is medical history with warts, as they say. Lehrer is a wellinformed fellow who likes to gossip. So read this text if you want to hear about Koch's mistress as well as tuberculosis, Ehrlich's financial naivet‚ as well as Salvarsan, Cushing's extraordinary contempt for co-workers, Halsted's addiction to morphine, rou‚ Emile (diphtheria toxin) Roux who said ""Women are like drugs. When they no longer act, one must change"" . . . and the madmen like poor Semmelweiss who tried to get doctors to wash their hands, quacks like Mesmer, and the countless antagonisms, jealousies, legendary tales and what-not of penicillin, streptomycin, malaria, filaria, Listerine. Even an exegesis on Arrowsmith which was a collaboration between Lewis and Paul (Microbe Hunters) de Kruif--who got fired from Rockefeller Institute for lampooning his colleagues in print. One surmises that the stories may not always be pure and unadulterated (there's barely a mention, for instance, of Crick's contribution to the DNA model and hardly a civil word for Watson). But no one could deny that the characters are often melodramatic personnae. Lots of good medical lore--and juicy.

Pub Date: May 11, 1979

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Doubleday

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1979

Categories: NONFICTION