Rating: 
(1 reviews) Author: Gareth Williams ISBN : 9781137299758 New from $19.44 Format: PDF
Direct download links available PRETITLE Paralysed with Fear: The Story of Polio POSTTITLE from mediafire, rapishare, and mirror link (1 reviews) Author: Gareth Williams ISBN : 9781137299758 New from $19.44 Format: PDFFrom the award-winning author of Angel of Death comes a comprehensive and engaging narrative of mankind's battle against polio.
For much of the twentieth century, polio inspired terror as the 'morning paralysis' which could invade any home and disable or kill a previously healthy person. The cruelty of the disease is epitomised by the iconic images of the crippled child and the iron lung.
This is the story of mankind's struggle against polio, is compelling, exciting and full of twists and pardoxes. One of the grand challenges of modern medicine, it was a battleground between good and bad science. Some research won Nobel Prizes; other work was flawed or fraudulent, holding up progress and endangering patients' lives. Gareth Williams takes an original view of the journey to understanding and defeating polio, exploring the profoundly moving experiences of victims alongside the medical and scientific landmarks in the history of the disease.
Praise for Angel of Death:
'An engaging narrative, in which medical history is interweaved with social history and reflections on contemporary issues' BBC History Magazine
'Wonderful. Wonderfully-researched, vividly-written, an example of medical history at its absolute best.' Michael Neve
For much of the twentieth century, polio inspired terror as the 'morning paralysis' which could invade any home and disable or kill a previously healthy person. The cruelty of the disease is epitomised by the iconic images of the crippled child and the iron lung.
This is the story of mankind's struggle against polio, is compelling, exciting and full of twists and pardoxes. One of the grand challenges of modern medicine, it was a battleground between good and bad science. Some research won Nobel Prizes; other work was flawed or fraudulent, holding up progress and endangering patients' lives. Gareth Williams takes an original view of the journey to understanding and defeating polio, exploring the profoundly moving experiences of victims alongside the medical and scientific landmarks in the history of the disease.
Praise for Angel of Death:
'An engaging narrative, in which medical history is interweaved with social history and reflections on contemporary issues' BBC History Magazine
'Wonderful. Wonderfully-researched, vividly-written, an example of medical history at its absolute best.' Michael Neve
- Hardcover: 376 pages
- Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan; 1 edition (July 17, 2013)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1137299754
- ISBN-13: 978-1137299758
- Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.3 inches
- Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Paralysed with Fear: The Story of Polio PDF
We think of scientific advances, especially those that have a humanitarian bent like medical research, as being claimed in a harmonious effort between individuals and teams. A little conflict due to competition is accepted, but the participants do have a higher good in mind and work for the benefit of humanity. This may actually be the case for many research efforts; it was not the case in the search for the cure of polio. Let us take pride that polio is all but vanished now; it's a magnificent accomplishment. Victory, however, was not gained by idealistic heroes, but by self-interested and flawed rivals who used practices of shameful ethics and skullduggery to gain their points. "There are few gentlemen in the history of polio," writes Gareth Williams, a British doctor who besides medical texts has written about the conquest of smallpox. His _Paralysed with Fear: The Story of Polio_ (Palgrave MacMillan) describes the messy way the job of controlling polio got done. Most doctors these days will not see a case of polio; it was a disease that defined the twentieth century, and if we let it continue further into the twenty-first, we have only human folly to blame. Williams's book shows how long the journey took, and how often it was made longer by entrenched ideas, distrust among peers, and simple bad faith. Williams has amassed many details for a fascinating and amusing history of how a laudable achievement came about despite often disgraceful behavior on the part of researchers who should have acted a little more like dispassionate searchers after truth.
It was clear from the first that episodes came from a disease that was contagious, but the cause was not clear; it might have been blueberries or Italians or cats or flies or sugar.
No comments:
Post a Comment