[net.bio] Query: books on the history of medicine

mark@elsie.UUCP (04/03/84)

<o>
The best introductory books I ever read on the history of medicine were
"The Century of the Surgeon" and a sequel whose name I can't remember. I
also can't remember the author, someone else know? They were written
in the "pseudo" first person, describing a surgeon's life in the days just
before the advent of anesthesia and covering all the major advances (and
miss-advances) that occurred over the next 50-100 years. They were fascinating
and very informative also. The same author also wrote "Century of the
Detective", also well worth reading by people who like technical histories.

-- 
Mark J. Miller
NIH/NCI/DCE/LEC
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andyb@dartvax.UUCP (Andy Behrens) (04/07/84)

The author of "The Century of the Surgeon", mentioned in an earlier
reply, is Ju"rgen Thorwald.

Another book that I would recommend to those interested in the history
of medicine is "Rats, Lice and History", by Hans Zinsser, published
by Little, Brown, and Company (Boston, 1935).  It is primarily about typhus,
but the author talks about epidemiology and many other things as well.
 
The style of the book is rambling and discursive, and somewhat old-fashioned
as well, as may be seen from the full title:

		  - RATS, LICE and HISTORY -

	Being a study in Biography, which after Twelve
	  Preliminary Chapters Indispensable for the
	     Preparation of the Lay Reader, Deals
		   With the Life History of
			 TYPHUS FEVER

---
Andy Behrens
P.O. Box 24, East Thetford, Vermont
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riddle@ut-sally.UUCP (Prentiss Riddle) (04/09/84)

Here are some responses I received by mail to my request for books on
the history of medicine.  Thanks to all who replied!
 
>> Try "Rockefeller Medicine Men:  Medicine & Capitalism in America" by E.
>> Richard Brown (University of California Press, 1979).
>> 				-- ncsu!golio
 
>> The best book around for beginners is a book called THE GREAT DOCTORS
>> by Henry Sigerist.  The book is available at most libraries that are
>> worth anything.  The book is also available from dover books if you
>> happen to have a bookshop that has a good collection of dover books.
>> 				-- mark shifman   ...mcnc!ecsvax!mas
 
>> I recommend Lewis Thomas's recent autobiography.
>> 				-- Tom Long

--- Prentiss Riddle ("Aprendiz de todo, maestro de nada.")
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