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(36 reviews)
Author: Paul de Kruif F. Gonzalez-Crussi
ISBN : B004KZOWFA
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In this classic bestseller, Paul de Kruif dramatizes the pioneering bacteriological work of such scientists as Leeuwenhoek, Spallanzani, Koch, Pasteur, Reed, and Ehrlich. This seventieth anniversary edition features a new introduction by F. Gonzalez-Crussi. Index.
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- File Size: 835 KB
- Print Length: 370 pages
- Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0156027771
- Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; 3 edition (October 28, 2002)
- Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
- Language: English
- ASIN: B004KZOWFA
- Text-to-Speech: Enabled
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- Lending: Not Enabled
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #142,899 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
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in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Professional & Technical > Medical eBooks > Basic Science > Microbiology
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I read this book as a child and it was fascinating reading. Some of what is described is still current (Pasteur's rabies vaccine) while some treatments are long out of use (Ehrlich's "magic bullet" for syphillis was actually derived from arsenic and had a fair amount of side effects-an accurate cure would not be developed until the discovery of Penicillin). Also some of the attitudes taken by the writer are racist such as the quip along the lines that "you couldn't tell the Africans with sleeping sickness apart from the healthy ones because they were all lazy". This should remind people of the dichotomy that existed in society then. Also biology then was like a manic gold rush. There were no restrictions on testing medicenes so that famous scientific figures would test the treatments on friends, family or if they were brave, themselves. One thing that was strongly prevalent then was the optimism of a cure for the various diseases. There was no sense of a pharmeceutical industry trying to quickly bring to market a highly profitable drug, whether or not it was safe or effective or even more than slightly different from other medications. There was no sense of cynicism then. Once the germ theory was developed, people realized what lived amidst their world and sought to find ways to have people live better and healthier lives. So you can dismiss some of the outdated attitudes and ideology and see this book as specimen on a microscope slide, frozen in time, to be examined from a new perspective
By directions
Being in Nursing school, it is required that I take the course Microbiology. Part of our reading materials were The Hot Zone, Demon In The Freezer, and this wonderful book I've just finished, Microbe Hunters.
Never have I read such wonderful books one right after the other. After I finished each one, I thought that one was the best book on microbes. They are all wonderful in their own ways, but this book on how it all started is endearing in that it was written so long ago (1926). When the author speaks of something happening in the 1890's, that's over a hundred years ago to us, but was just yesterday to the author.
Today, we think of ourselves as medically advanced and very knowledgeable in science. However, one hundred years from now they will look at our methods and shake their heads in wonder at how we could have done such silly things. Likewise, we wonder about microbe hunters of 100 years ago. But we would be wise to understand the baby steps they all had to take to get us where we are today.
This is truly a remarkable book on the history of how we got to where we are today. If only De Kruif could have written a similar book that takes us from 1926 until today. Alas, he died in 1971, having left us with a masterpiece.
By Will Nance