The White Death: A History of Tuberculosis PDF

Rating: (5 reviews) Author: Visit Amazon's Thomas Dormandy Page ISBN : 9781852853327 New from Format: PDF

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From Publishers Weekly

Accessible scientific and sociological history are combined by Dormandy, a consultant pathologist in London, in this account of a tenacious disease that has claimed victims from ancient Egypt to 1990s New York City. Focusing mostly on western Europe and the U.S., Dormandy vividly details the long struggle against tuberculosis. He takes readers through the high points of its history--from the discovery in 1882, by German physician Robert Koch, of the tubercle bacillus through the legendary tubercular deaths of writers, musicians and artists like Katherine Mansfield, George Orwell, D.H. Lawrence and Modigliani. He notes that before 1882, most observers thought infection was caused by a genetic predisposition, and doctors often treated it with measures such as bloodletting (which, Dormandy argues, hastened the deaths of famous sufferers like poet John Keats). Then he follows the disease as it made its way through crowded, poverty-stricken urban areas. He discusses the growth of the 19th century's sanatorium movement, examines the romantic, creative aura that was associated with it, and takes note of the post-WWII discovery and use of antibiotics, which began to effect dramatic cures. Dormandy points his research at present-day medical struggles--the global HIV epidemic, he notes, has combined with the emergence of multi-drug resistance to make tuberculosis, once thought almost eradicated, a threat to worldwide health again. Prodigious research and an engaging anecdotal style blend to make this a fascinating foray into the history of medicine. Illustrations and b&w photos. Editor, Niko Pfund. (Mar.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

British pathologist Dormandy weaves together cultural and medical history with the skill of a learned, witty, and humane scholar. Exhaustively researched and documented, his book describes the havoc wreaked by tuberculosis over millennia--which, horrifyingly, was sometimes inflicted by physicians themselves. Happily, the search for a cure led also to significant medical innovations, including the stethoscope, antibiotics, and X-rays. More mundane advances, including park benches, bobbed hair, and an end to ornate Victorian d?cor, also emerged, as an appalling number of citizens of all social classes sought cures in sanatoria, where carefully calibrated exercise was a standard prescription and dust was relentlessly suppressed. Dormandy illuminates his medical history through the stories of dozens of artists and writers, from Keats and Chopin to Orwell, D.H. Lawrence, and Vivien Leigh, whose lives were tragically shortened before effective antibiotics became available in the 1940s and 1950s. Sadly, however, TB's protean bacteria quickly began to mutate into drug-resistant strains, and the search for a permanent cure or effective vaccine continues. Strongly recommended for serious readers in all libraries.
-Kathleen Arsenault, Univ. of South Florida at St. Petersburg Lib.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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• Product Details
• Table of Contents
• Reviews

• Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: Hambledon & London (2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1852853328
• ISBN-13: 978-1852853327
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds

The White Death: A History of Tuberculosis PDF

When the whole world seemed to be suffering with flu last winter I read and thoroughly enjoyed "Flu" by Gina Kolata. I caught the sickness bug (bad pun) and read several more social-history books about deadly diseases and living conditions in the past, and Dormandy's "The White Death" was by far the best. We readers are all familiar with the idea of the limp, frail tubercular Victorian who is tragically going to waste away before his magnus opus is finished, but do we realise that until fairly recently, tuberculosis was so common - in fact expected in certain circles - that the wasted tubercular look was actually fashionable amongst the artistic and indolent (early heroine-chic?)? This very readable book charts the long and difficult fight between the medical establishment and tuberculosis - a disease that wasn't fussy who it struck or where it struck. Of course, the poor slum-dwellers didn't stand a chance, but history does not record their names. What is striking is how many well known figures it hastened to an early grave - some of the finest artists, writers and minds of Europe, including the Bront볬 Keats, Modigliani, Chekhov, D.H. Lawrence, Katherine Mansfield and George Orwell. It also rampaged through several royal households at various times. What made it so cruel was its slowness and the way it toyed with its victims. Availed with all that quackery could offer, the patient could have several seeming "recoveries" before eventually fading. Dormandy describes some of the practises of doctors in their battle against tuberculosis - you will have to read them for yourself! Gradually inroads were made by the scientific community but only after generations of sickness.