Author: DORMANDY, THOMAS
Title: The white death : a history of tuberculosis / Thomas Dormandy
Description: London : Hambledon Press 1999. First Edition. Fine cloth copy in an equally fine dust-wrapper. Particularly and surprisingly well-preserved; tight. bright. clean and especially sharp-cornered. Physical description; xiv. 433 pages : illustrations. portraits ; 24 cm. Notes; Includes bibliographical references (p. [393]-404) and index. Summary; This is a history of tuberculosis. including its social. artistic and human impact. Thomas Dormandy's account of the search for the cure is complemented by a description of its complex natural history; portraits of individual sufferers. including writers. artists and musicians. whose lives were shaped (and often curtailed) by the disease. Tuberculosis is not a disease of the past. in many parts of the world it is still a bigger killer than AIDS; while in America and Europe drug-resistant strains threaten its resurgence. Review: On the face of it. a book about tuberculosis. the 'white death' which until the discovery of its nature ravaged most of the world. would seem likely to be sufficiently depressing to put most potential readers off. On the contrary - however much anyone may dislike the idea of reading a long book about an unpleasant and formerly fatal illness. it will be a rare reader who does not in the end find it fascinating. For some reason. TB has become a 'romantic' illness - partly because it seemed (although of course it did not) to concentrate on artists. and this book gives an account of the last years and deaths of such people as Moliere. Chopin. Keats. Chekhov. Beardsley and members of the Bronte family. The author also deals with fictional accounts of the illness. and the plays. poems. novels which have described it - notably of course La Dame aux Camelias and La Traviata. But this book (which is really a very great deal more readable and less depressing than it might seem) also deals with the progress of attempts to find a cure for TB. the discovery of the bacillus. and the forward-looking hospitals such as Papworth in which. at long long last. and after centuries of doctors whose solution to the disease was invariably to bleed the patient half to death. sensible treatment was offered. The only criticism is that almost every page has a footnote. which could more readably have been included in the text. But this is a small price to pay for a truly fascinating volume - one of the most unlikely successes. it may be. of the year. (Kirkus UK) Subjects; 18th Century; 19th Century. 20th Century. Tuberculosis - History. History. Medicine. Tuberculosis. Pulmonary - history. Medical Case Histories. History of Medicine. Infectious & contagious diseases ; Medical microbiology & virology ; History of medicine ; Cultural studies. MEDICAL / History. MEDICAL / Infectious Diseases. ISBN: 1852851694. Weight in Kg appr.:

Keywords: 1852851694