Spitting Blood: The history of tuberculosis [Kindle Edition]
Author: Helen Bynum | Language: English | ISBN: B009NF6YEE | Format: PDF, EPUB
Spitting Blood: The history of tuberculosis
Direct download links available Spitting Blood: The history of tuberculosis [Kindle Edition] for everyone book mediafire, rapishare, and mirror link Tuberculosis is characterised as a social disease and few have been more inextricably linked with human history. There is evidence from the archaeological record that Mycobacterium tuberculosis and its human hosts have been together for a very long time. The very mention of tuberculosis brings to mind romantic images of great literary figures pouring out their souls in creative works as their bodies were being decimated by consumption. It is a disease that at various times
has had a certain glamour associated with it.
From the medieval period to the modern day, Helen Bynum explores the history and development of tuberculosis throughout the world, touching on the various discoveries that have emerged about the disease over time, and focussing on the experimental approaches of Rene Laennec (1781-1826) and Robert Koch (1842-1910). Bynum also examines the place tuberculosis holds in the popular imagination and its role in various forms of the dramatic arts.
The story of tuberculosis since the 1950s is complex, and Bynum describes the picture emerging from the World Health Organization of the difficulties that attended the management of the disease in the developing world. In the meantime, tuberculosis has emerged again in the West, both among the urban underclass and in association with a new infection - HIV. The disease has returned with a vengeance - in drug-resistant form. The story of tuberculosis is far from over. Books with free ebook downloads available Spitting Blood: The history of tuberculosis [Kindle Edition]
Direct download links available Spitting Blood: The history of tuberculosis [Kindle Edition] for everyone book mediafire, rapishare, and mirror link Tuberculosis is characterised as a social disease and few have been more inextricably linked with human history. There is evidence from the archaeological record that Mycobacterium tuberculosis and its human hosts have been together for a very long time. The very mention of tuberculosis brings to mind romantic images of great literary figures pouring out their souls in creative works as their bodies were being decimated by consumption. It is a disease that at various times
has had a certain glamour associated with it.
From the medieval period to the modern day, Helen Bynum explores the history and development of tuberculosis throughout the world, touching on the various discoveries that have emerged about the disease over time, and focussing on the experimental approaches of Rene Laennec (1781-1826) and Robert Koch (1842-1910). Bynum also examines the place tuberculosis holds in the popular imagination and its role in various forms of the dramatic arts.
The story of tuberculosis since the 1950s is complex, and Bynum describes the picture emerging from the World Health Organization of the difficulties that attended the management of the disease in the developing world. In the meantime, tuberculosis has emerged again in the West, both among the urban underclass and in association with a new infection - HIV. The disease has returned with a vengeance - in drug-resistant form. The story of tuberculosis is far from over. Books with free ebook downloads available Spitting Blood: The history of tuberculosis [Kindle Edition]
- File Size: 1567 KB
- Print Length: 344 pages
- Publisher: OUP Oxford; 1 edition (November 22, 2012)
- Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
- Language: English
- ASIN: B009NF6YEE
- Text-to-Speech: Enabled
- Lending: Enabled
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #179,000 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #65 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Professional & Technical > Medical eBooks > Special Topics > History
"The Emperor of All Maladies" (see my review on Amazon) was written by an incredibly gifted medical scientist and writer, and it established in my mind an impossibly high standard for any other history of disease. For me "Emperor" sat alongside Clio, the muse of history, high on the slopes of Mount Parnassus, never to be approached.
Yet I love medical history and so on I went, picking up many such new books and usually soon afterwards laying them down only partially read, especially those written by non-scientists and/or authors who could not write particularly well and were just cranking out books on hot subjects, books that would soon be forgotten.
Finally though, my wandering in the wilderness around Parnassus has been rewarded. "Spitting Blood" (surely there could have been a better title) may not actually sit right beside "Emperor" and Clio, but it is very high up there indeed. And if "Emperor" had never existed then "Spitting Blood" would be establishing its own very high standard of excellence (imagine Andy Roddick's career had Federer, Nadal, and Djokovic never existed).
Plus, "Spitting Blood" does something more, and unusual, and very, very important.
But before getting into that let's first evaluate "Spitting Blood" (ugh, there's that title again!) on a more fundamental level. There's no need here to recite what TB is or what a basic history of it needs to encompass. The vast majority of potential readers of "Spitting Blood" -- unless they think this book is a compilation of chain saw and axe murders -- already know at least a little about TB. Given TB's history and ubiquitousness, who doesn't?
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