History of medicine Books

Book SynopsisThis text establishes historical context for the contemporary debate over the role of unconventional medicine in health care by examining the evolution of the major alternative systems in America from 1800 onwards.Trade ReviewA significant contribution, Nature Cures provides a valuable perspective on the unconventional therapies that for many decades have, to the dismay of organized medicine, attracted large numbers of Americans engaged in the pursuit of health. * Science *An authority on the history of medicine and health...his engaging, authoritative, and interesting book provides a valuable background to the wide range of therapies available today. * NAPRA Review *A lively tale filled with fads and quackery, much of which was sanctioned by the medical establishment of its day, while efficacious regimes that are still practiced today were denounced. In so doing, he remains remarkably evenhanded and touches on the lives and reputations of such notables as Mary Baker Eddy, Catherine Beecher (sister of Harriet Beecher Stowe) and Daniel Webster. * New York Daily News *A distinguished and respected writer about health and medicinal studies, Whorton gives us a thorough, deeply researched and objective history of alternative medicine. Presented in a relaxed and reliable style, this book is highly readable and surprisingly entertaining. * Statesman Journal *Thorough, enjoyable, and rigorous, this study documents the major 'unconventional' healing movements of 19th- and 20th-century America. This book fills a large gap.... Highly recommended. * Library Journal *A lively, entertaining, and well-documented introduction to the history of unconventional medicine in the U.S. over the past two centuries... There's much here to interest and perhaps amaze anyone who has ever been a patient. * Kirkus Reviews *Table of ContentsPART I: THE NINETEENTH CENTURY: NATURAL HEALING; PART II: THE EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY: DRUGLESS HEALING; PART III: THE LATE TWENTIETH CENTURY: HOLISTIC HEALING

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Book SynopsisWilliam Osler was born in a parsonage in backwoods Canada on July 12, 1849. In a life lasting seventy years, he practiced, taught, and wrote about medicine at Canada''s McGill University, America''s Johns Hopkins University, and finally as Regius Professor at Oxford. At the time of his death in England in 1919, many considered him to be the greatest doctor in the world. Osler, who was a brilliant, innovative teacher and a scholar of the natural history of disease, revolutionised the art of practicing medicine at the bedside of his patients. He was idolised by two generations of medical students and practitioners for whom he came to personify the ideal doctor. But much more than a physician, Osler was a supremely intelligent humanist. In both his writings and his personal life, and through the prism of the tragedy of the Great War, he embodied the art of living. It was perhaps his legendary compassion that elevated his healing talents to an art form and attracted to his private practiceTrade Review"A dutiful social historian, Bliss inquires into Osler's sensitivity to issues of ethnicity, class, and gender." -- Ronald L. Numbers, Science"Most readers will welcome a biography that is both more manageable in scope and more up to date in its assessment not merely of Osler but also of the bustling and creative medical world of the 19th and early 20th centuries in which he practiced. For a generation of readers whose shared values are so different from Osler's, William Osler: A Life in Medicine is certain to generate a new appreciation of the man and his remarkably diverse achievements."--Gary B. Ferngren, PhD, New England Journal of Medicine"Bliss gives a well-paced and intellectually fascinating account of Osler's life. He pins down the significant moments in a spectacularly diverse career as a physician and teacher of medicine who did original research on, among other subjects, the components of blood, and wrote in 1892 The Principles and Practice of Medicine, perhaps the most widely read and admired medical textbook of its time."--The New York Review"This beautifully written detailed account however will no doubt become the classic... True, but this excellent and very readable biography does credit to a great and caring physician and I think Sir William would have been proud of it."--Emery Review"A well-told, enjoyable, enlightening--and much needed-- biography of a giant of medical practice and education...A first-rate biography of a towering medical figure." --Kirkus Reviews (starred review)"Medical historian Bliss has written the authoritative modern biography of the 19-century Canadian physician William Osler...This volume replaces Harvey Cushing's two volume tribute, The Life of William Osler (1956) as the definitive text in the field. Highly recommended...essential."--Library Journal (starred review)"Thoroughly documented, this is a biography that is pleasurable to read and deserving of a place in virtually every public, college, and medical library."--Booklist"Eminently readable.... This is the sort of writing that has the air of coming easily off the pen, in spite its scholarly documentation and the enormous wealth of research and erudition hidden between its lines.... A fascinating story about a fascinating man."--Sherwin B. Nuland, The New Republic"Bliss adroitly captures the turn-of-the-century emergence of modern medicine, which Osler gracefully dominated."--Science News"An excellent, readable biography written by a true scholar of medical history who knows his man and his material intimately."--Journal of the American Medical Association"Medical historian Michael Bliss' William Osler is a big, sturdy, readable account of Osler's life and the medical advances that were made in his lifetime, a period the author calls 'the age of bacteriology'"--Washington Times"Bliss succeeds where Cushing [Osler's first biographer, The Life of Sir William Osler 1925] failed: he engages the reader from the first page. By the last page the reader understands why Osler has generated a century-old awe and affection that shows no signs of dimming. Meticulously researched and crisply written; an excellent book that will educate a variety of audiences."--Choice"In his handsome new biography Michael Bliss portrays Osler as the living embodiment of the ideal 19th century physician. Bliss's book is more accessible for the modern general reader, compared to Cushing's earlier two-volume biography. Bliss deliberately subjects Osler's personal life and attitudes to more searching scrutiny. To his own surprise, he finds no blot or stain on his subject's character." -- Steve Sturdy"... this biography is a monumental accomplishment. Osler openly avowed a duty to 'knit together the generations of physicians by honoring the great men of the past in acts of 'filial piety'(p. 249). Bliss has made an outstanding and eminently readable contribution to this endeavor, as well as to the scholarly study of the history of medicine."--American Historical Review"It will be an undoubted classic for many years...Bliss's book splendidly champions Osler's compassionate approach to medicine and will surely remain the classical account of one of the most important physicians of the past 100 years."--The Royal Society Notes and RecordsMay 2002"...this biographu is a monumental accomplishment."--American Historical ReviewTable of ContentsPreface: On Doing an Osler Autopsy ; 1. English Gentlemen with American Energy ; 2. Learning to See: Student Years ; 3. The Baby Professor ; 4. The Best Men: Philadelphia ; 5. Starting at Johns Hopkins ; 6. We All Worship Him ; 7. The Great American Doctor ; 8. Leaving America ; 9. A Delightful Life and Place ; 10. Sir William ; 11. All the Youth and Glory of the Country ; 12. Never Use a Crutch ; 13. Osler's Afterlife

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Book SynopsisHere is the first biography to appear in fifty years of Harvey Cushing, a giant of American medicine and without doubt the greatest figure in the history of brain surgery.Drawing on new collections of intimate personal and family papers, diaries and patient records, Michael Bliss captures Cushing''s professional and personal life in remarkable detail. Bliss paints an engaging portrait of a man of ambition, boundless, driving energy, a fanatical work ethic, a penchant for self-promotion and ruthlessness, more than a touch of egotism and meanness, and an enormous appetite for life. Equally important, Bliss traces the rise of American surgery as seen through the eyes of one of its pioneers. The book describes how Cushing, working in the early years of the 20th century, developed remarkable new techniques that let surgeons open the skull, expose the brain, and attack tumors--all with a much higher rate of success than previously known. Indeed, Cushing made the miraculous in surgery an everTrade Review"This masterwork of narrative brings to vibrant life one of the most complex, brilliant, and endlessly fascinating medical personalities of recent times. In a book that will stand as the definitive biography of Harvey Cushing, Michael Bliss demonstrates once again why he is that ideal combination of storyteller and scrupulous historical researcher craved by general readers and envied by academics."--Sherwin Nuland"Monumental. Bliss begins before the cradle and ends beyond the grave, touching both on the material facts of Cushing's remarkable successes and on his convoluted inner life.... It is difficult to imagine how any future writer might improve on this masterpiece of compassion and erudition." --Richard Barnett, Lancet"An absorbing chronicle of the career of one of the greatest medical innovators ever produced by the US--or any other country.... One of the most extraordinary lives any biographer might wish to study.... It is Bliss's great accomplishment that he has made accessible not only the science, medicine, and professional atmosphere of Cushing's career, but also the character and personality of the man.... What Bliss has given to his subject is what Cushing himself, or any of us, would ask of a biographer: understanding."--Sherwin Nuland, New York Review of Books"A fast paced, engaging portrait of one of America's great pioneers and heroes. Bliss gives important insight into Cushing's motivations, inspirations, demons, and flaws, thus revealing how he was motivated to change a field and bravely create a new outlook on the functioning of the brain as well as a fundamentally new approach to medicine and research." --Henry Brem, Harvey Cushing Professor and Chairman, Department of Neurosurgery, Johns Hopkins"As cleanly efficient as a successful operation.... As this solid, accessible biography reveals, Cushing may have been the very devil to live with, but with a scalpel in his hand, he did God's work."--Julia Keller, Chicago Tribune"Brings back to life an amazingly accomplished man who was the father of American neurosurgery, a leading authority on the pituitary gland, a pioneer of endocrinology and a Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer."--Denver Post"Bliss...had a voluminous treasure trove of primary documents with which to work. His readable and thoroughly documented book presents Cushing as both an icon and a human being whose family and colleagues suffered from his single-minded devotion to work and blunt perfectionism. Written almost 60 years after the last major Cushing biography, this illustrated work calls on new resources and provides a more contemporary perspective."--Library Journal"The essence of biography is the elucidation of personality, and this is accomplished in a superb fashion in Michael Bliss's splendid modern biography of Harvey Cushing, with each chapter providing a facet of insight into a complex and fascinating icon of 20th century medicine and surgery." --Edward R. Laws, MD, FACS, Professor of Neurosurgery and Medicine, University of Virginia"Bliss has provided us with a definitive biography of the founder of American neurosurgery. It is a book about glitter and intensity, about vision and persistence, and about the emergence of America as a world leader in medicine. Sophisticated, balanced, and thoughtful it is a story of interest to physicians, surgeons, and lovers of history." --Peter M. Black, MD, PhD, Franc D. Ingraham Professor of Neurosurgery, Harvard Medical School and Neurosurgeon-in-Chief, Brigham and Women's Hospital"Another tour-de-force by Michael Bliss. Like Bliss' William Osler: A Life in Medicine, it will be a classic of medical history." --Jock Murray, Medical Humanities Program, Dalhousie University"It is beautifully written and illustrated, a pleasure to read, and paints Cushing 'warts and all.' A must for anyone with an interest in the development of our profession and with the life of this extraordinary man."--British Journal of Hospital MedicineTable of ContentsOpening: The Surgeon and the General ; 1. Western Reserve: The Cushings of Cleveland ; 2. Making a Yale Man ; 3. Making a Harvard Doctor ; 4. Making an American Surgeon ; 5. A Window on the Brain ; 6. Opening the Closed Box: The Birth of Neurosurgery ; 7. The Bottom of the Box: Interrogating the Pituitary ; 8. Adieu the Simple Life ; 9. Adieu America: Cushing Goes to War ; 10. An American Surgeon at Passchendaele ; 11. Fathers and Sons ; 12. Johnson and Boswells: Chief and Harem ; 13. Sprinting to the Tape ; 14. Regius Professor at Yale ; Closing: Inheritance and Memory

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Book SynopsisA physician says I have an ethical obligation never to cause the death of a patient, another responds, My ethical obligation is to relieve pain even if the patient dies. The current argument over the role of physicians in assisting patients to die constantly refers to the ethical duties of the profession. References to the Hippocratic Oath are often heard. Many modern problems, from assisted suicide to accessible health care, raise questions about the traditional ethics of medicine and the medical profession. However, few know what the traditional ethics are and how they came into being. This book provides a brief tour of the complex story of medical ethics evolved over centuries in both Western and Eastern culture. It sets this story in the social and cultural contexts in which the work of healing was practised and suggest that, behing the many different perceptions about the ethical duties of physicians, certain themes appear constantly, and may be relevant to modern debates. The booTrade Review"This historical analysis highlights ways in which the reflections on the role of character, moral obligations, and the relationship between the individual and the community (which stimulates contemporary bioethics) have a history that reaches deep into the past and across cultural boundaries...An important resource for a discipline just beginning to discover its historical roots."--Choice "Albert Jonsen, a distiguished theoretician and practitioner of bioethics, has written what is essentially a prehisotry of the field...A Short History of Medical Ethics is a scholarly prologue to the evolving world of contemporary bioethics...Not surprisingly, A Short History of Medical Ethics is at least as useful for what it tells us about earlier societies as it is for what it tells us about bioethics."--New England Journal of Medicine "This historical analysis highlights ways in which the reflections on the role of character, moral obligations, and the relationship between the individual and the community (which stimulates contemporary bioethics) have a history that reaches deep into the past and across cultural boundaries...An important resource for a discipline just beginning to discover its historical roots."--Choice "As Jonsen shows, the history of medical ethics is not short, despite the title of his book. In about one hundred and twenty pages he tells the story of over two thousand years of moral discourse about medicine, covering traditions in both the East and West. Jonsen's tour through time and cultures highlights particular events and persons, and shows that even though there are some cultural differences, common themes coalesce in a long tradition of the ethics of medicine."--Philosophy in ReviewTable of ContentsINTRODUCTION: THE LONG TRADITION OF ETHICS IN MEDICINE

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Book SynopsisEncephalitis Lethargica: During and After the Epidemic is akin to a detective novel about a major medical mystery that remains unsolved. During the 1920s and 1930s a strange, very polymorphic condition affected much of the world although not at the same time everywhere and certainly not with the same symptoms. This condition, encephalitis lethargica, could cause death in a short period, or a Rip Van Winkle type of sleep that might last days, weeks or months, but could also, surprisingly, cause insomnia. Its symptoms were thought to encompass almost anything imaginable, which made its diagnosis exceedingly difficult, to the point where its existence as a distinct neurologic entity could be questioned. Furthermore, even in those patients who appeared to recover from the disease, there was a large risk that they would subsequently develop a more chronic and devastating sequel believed to follow the disease in up to 80% of its victims, postencephalitic parkinsonism. This condition became mTrade ReviewBy extracting and synthesizing core information from monographs and journal articles published in various languages before, during, and after the epidemic, the author provides an unprecedented level of analysis in a readable format. * Doody's Listings *Great read. If you want a page of disease to rule in or out this is the book where you will find them. * ACN Online *Table of ContentsTITLE PAGE; COPYRIGHT PAGE; TABLE OF CONTENTS; CONTRIBUTORS; PROLOGUE (STEELE); FOREWORD (SACKS); PREFACE (VILENSKY)

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Book SynopsisPsychiatry has long struggled with the nature of its diagnoses. The problems raised by questions about the nature of psychiatric illness are particularly fascinating because they sit at the intersection of philosophy, empirical psychiatric/psychological research, measurement theory, historical tradition and policy. In being the only medical specialty that diagnoses and treats mental illness, psychiatry has been subject to major changes in the last 150 years. This book explores the forces that have shaped these changes and especially how substantial internal advances in our knowledge of the nature and causes of psychiatric illness have interacted with a plethora of external forces that have impacted on the psychiatric profession. It includes contributions from philosophers of science with an interest in psychiatry, psychiatrists and psychologists with expertise in the history of their field and historians of psychiatry. Each chapter is accompanied by an introduction and a commentary. ThTrade ReviewOne of its great strengths is its structure, in which each topic is addressed, immediately followed by a counterpoint article....This is a high-quality overview of several of the historical and philosophical issues that must arise when attempting to understand the nature of a discipline like psychiatry. * Doody's Notes *Table of ContentsPART I: NATURE OF HISTORICAL CHANGE IN SCIENCE; SECTION 1: OBJECTIVITY AND SCIENTIFIC CHANGE; SECTION 2: CHANGE IN PSYCHOPATHOLOGY; SECTION 3: SCIENTIFIC DISAGREEMENT IN THE MEDICAL CONTEXT; SECTION 4: THE SOCIAL, THE CULTURAL, AND PSYCHIATRIC KINDS; PART II: HISTORY OF BROAD MOVEMENTS/STRUCTURES WITHIN PSYCHIATRY; SECTION 5: THE PSYCHIATRIC HISTORY OF THE DIENCEPHALON; SECTION 6: THE HISTORY OF PSYCHIATRY AS INTERDISCIPLINARY HISTORY; SECTION 7: PSYCHIATRY AND PSYCHOANALYSIS IN THE UNITED STATES; SECTION 8: THE OPERATIONAL REVOLUTION; SECTION 9: THE EVOLUTION OF GENETIC EXPLANATION IN PSYCHIATRY; SECTION 10: PSYCHIATRY AND EVOLUTION; PART III: SPECIFIC DISORDERS FROM AN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE; SECTION 11: SCHIZOPHRENIA AND THE DOPAMINE HYPOTHESIS; SECTION 12: CONCEPTUAL STATUS OF DEPRESSION TODAY; SECTION 13: THE SHAPING OF AUTISM; SECTION 14: THE DECISION TO INCLUDE OR EXCLUDE A DIAGNOSIS IN PSYCHIATRIC NOSOLOGY: THE CASE OF PREMENSTRUAL DYSPHORIC DISORDER

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Book SynopsisThis work investigates the emergence of "idiot" asylums in Victorian England. Using the National Asylum for Idiots, Earlswood, as a case-study, it examines the social history of institutionalization and the relationship between the medical institution and the society whence its patients came.Trade ReviewThe book is an invaluable resource for historians, students and practitioners in the field of learning disability and deserves to be widely read. It is that rare phenomenon; a scholarly book that is also both readable and useful. * Local Population Studies *This is a detailed and scholarly work, meticulous both in its attention to detail, and in its mastery of the wider context ... also very engaging and highly readable. Wright succeeds in helping bring the history of learning disability from the periphery into the mainstream. This is no mean feat. * Local Population Studies *This is an important and timely book. It brings to prominence an under-researched and neglected area of social life - the history of learning disability. * Local Population Studies *This important monograph provides a comprehensive summary of his contribution to this expanding historiography and gives a useful critique of current thinking on mental illness and mental disability issues. Wright seamlessly develops this narrative around the history of a unique institution in its Victorian heyday ... thoughtful and comprehensive study. * Medical History *Exemplary study ... this is a wonderfully detailed study. One of its virtues is that it shows how tenuous disciplinary lines can be. To try to classify this work as institutional history, history of medicine, social history etc. would be to do a disservice to a volume that covers all these areas. * English Historical Review *Table of ContentsIntroduction ; 1. The State and Mental Disability ; 2. An Asylum for Idiots ; 3. Care in the Community ; 4. Institutionalizing Households ; 5. Idiots by Election ; 6. To Know No Weariness ; 7. The Golden Chain of Charity ; 8. The Educable Idiot ; 9. Down's Syndrome ; 10. The Danger of the Feeble-Minded ; 11. Conclusions ; Select Bibliography ; Index

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Book SynopsisCannabis Britannica explores the historical origins of the UK''s legislation and regulations on cannabis preparations before 1928. It draws on published and unpublished sources from the seventeenth century onwards from archives in the UK and India to show how the history of cannabis and the British before the twentieth century was bound up with imperialism. James Mills argues that until the 1900s, most of the information and experience gathered by British sources were drawn from colonial contexts as imperial administrators governed and observed populations where use of cannabis was extensive and established. This is most obvious in the 1890s when British anti-opium campaigners in the House of Commons seized on the issue of Government of India excise duties on the cannabis trade in Asia in order to open up another front in their attacks on imperial administration. The result was that cannabis preparations became a matter of concern in Parliament which accordingly established the Indian Trade ReviewHistory Today: Book of the Year Prize: Highly CommendedMills's conclusions are salutary in the current cannabis debate. * London Review of Books *An excellent account of the changing perceptions of a substance that has once again become the focus of attention ... a judicious mix of serious analysis and interesting anecdotes that shed light on the ongoing colourful career of cannabis * Zaheer Baber, Times Literary Supplement *"an amusing book to read, very well researched, and eminently readable". * Ann Widdecombe, Radio 4 Today programme d *Table of Contents1. Introduction ; 2. 'Dr O'Shaughnessy appears to have made some experiments with charas': Imperial Merchants, Victorian Science, and Hemp to 1842 ; 3. 'From the old records of the Ganja Supervisor's Office': Smuggling, Trade, and Taxation in Nineteenth- Century British India ; 4. 'The Sikh who killed the Reverend was a known bhang drinker': Medicine, Murder, and Madness in Mid-century ; 5. 'The Lunatic Asylums of India are filled with ganja smokers': Ganja in Parliament 1891-1894 ; 6. 'A bow-legged boy running with a chest of tea between his legs': Reports, Experiments, and Hallucinations, 1894-1912 ; 7. 'An allusion was made to hemp in the notes appended to the Hague Opium Convention': The League of Nations and British Legislation 1912-1928 ; 8. 'An outcome of cases that have come before the police courts of the use of hashish': DORA, the First World War, and the DomesticDrug Scares of the 1920s ; 9. Conclusion: Cannabis and the British Government, 1800-1928 ; Bibliography ; Index

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Book SynopsisSleep paralysis (characterized by an inability to move, conscious awareness in sleep, and vivid hallucinations) has a history that spans over two-thousand years. However, despite this expansive history, it is only in recent times that a scientific evidence base has accrued. The authors explore sleep paralysis from a range of historical perspectives, placing the phenomenon in a context relevant to clinicians and researchers.Dr. Brian Sharpless and Dr. Karl Doghramji''s Sleep Paralysis: Historical, Psychological, and Medical Perspectives examines and synthesizes theoretical and empirical literature on sleep disorder. With a focus on phenomenology and prevalence of sleep paralysis, the book situates the disorder within cultural and historical contexts. Sleep paralysis is found to be a well-described, REM-based phenomenon with a number of known behavioral and psychological correlates. The authors compile and summarize the associated features, diagnostic issues, prevalence rates, and potentTrade ReviewThis is a unique, superb, and enlightening book on sleep paralysis, a very common phenomenon but rarely written about from a scientific, historical, and social point of view. Anyone interested in how this common experience has affected human thought should read this book. This is a wonderful addition to the psychiatric literature. * Michael Joel Schrift, DO, MA (Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine), Doody's Notes *The recently published Sleep Paralysis. . . represents a concise summary of the current state of research in medical and neuro-psychology; leaving little to be desired. Particularly remarkable, is that even the humanities and cultural aspects are taken into account, so that we indeed find a "magnificent integration of humanistic and scientific medicine", as Charles F. Reynolds so aptly writes in the preface. * Dr. Gerhard Mayer, Institut für Grenzgebiete der Psychologie und Psychohygiene, Zeitschrift für Anomalistik (translated from the German) *This well-written, comprehensive, and easily readable book is destined to become the definitive resource for anyone-professional or lay-wishing to learn about any aspect of sleep paralysis. The authors have done an excellent job in demystifying this fascinating and common condition, proposing the first systematic approach to the evaluation and treatment of this mysterious condition." - Mark W. Mahowald, MD, Professor, Dept. of Neurology, University of MN Medical School (Retired); Adjunct Clinical Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford UniversityDr. Sharpless and Dr. Doghramji have produced an easy-to-read book which provides the most comprehensive and advanced knowledge of sleep paralysis in literature today. The authors have nicely documented sleep paralysis, a phenomenon noted throughout human history and across all cultures. Many folk myths remain entrenched in different cultures, and knowledge of these beliefs is critical to providing culturally sensitive care. This book will be of practical value to clinicians and appeal to people interested in philosophy, anthropology, religion, and the creative arts." - Thomas W. Uhde, MD, Professor and Chair, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences; Director, Sleep and Anxiety Disorders Treatment and Research Unit, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, South CarolinaTable of ContentsForeword ; Acknowledgments ; Chapter 1. What are Sleep Paralysis and Isolated Sleep Paralysis ; Chapter 2. Should Sleep Paralysis be more Frequently Assessed In Research Studies and Clinical Practice? ; Chapter 3. The History of Sleep Paralysis in Folklore and Myth ; Chapter 4. Sleep Paralysis in Art and Literature ; Chapter 5. Early Medicine and the <"Nightmare>" ; Chapter 6. Sleep Paralysis: Typical Symptoms and Associated Features ; Chapter 7. Prevalence of Sleep Paralysis ; Chapter 8. Sleep Paralysis and Medical Conditions ; Chapter 9. Sleep Paralysis and Psychopathology ; Chapter 10. Theories on the Etiology of Sleep Paralysis ; Chapter 11. Diagnostic Criteria, Diagnostic Issues, and Possible Subtypes of Sleep Paralysis ; Chapter 12. Review of Measures Used to Assess Sleep Paralysis ; Chapter 13. Differential Diagnosis of Sleep Paralysis ; Chapter 14. Folk Remedies for Sleep Paralysis ; Chapter 15. Psychosocial Approaches to the Treatment of Sleep Paralysis ; Chapter 16. Psychopharmacology for Sleep Paralysis ; Chapter 17. Conclusions and Future Directions ; Appendix A. Terms for Sleep Paralysis ; Appendix B. Fearful Isolated Sleep Paralysis Interview ; Appendix C. A Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment Manual for Recurrent Isolated Sleep Paralysis: CBT-ISP ; Appendix D. An Adherence Measure for CBT-ISPAppendix D: An Adherence Measure for CBT-ISP

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Book SynopsisIn the first comprehensive study of nineteenth-century medical museums, Morbid Curiosities traces the afterlives of diseased body parts. It asks how they came to be in museums, what happened to them there, and who used them. This book is concerned with the macabre work of pathologists as they dismembered corpses and preserved them: transforming bodies into material culture. The fragmented body parts followed complex paths - harvested from hospital wards, given to one of many prestigious institutions, or dispersed at auction. Human remains acquired new meanings as they were exchanged and were then reintegrated into museums as physical maps of disease. On shelves curators juxtaposed organic remains with paintings, photographs, and models, and rendered them legible with extensive catalogues that were intended to standardize the museum experience. And yet visitors refused to be policed, responding equally with wonder and disgust. Morbid Curiosities is a history of the material culture of mTrade Reviewabsorbing * Christopher Lawrence, Times Literary Supplement *a welcome and original addition to the scholarship on natural and medical history ... consistently engaging and accessible * Victoria Bates, Archives of Natural History *an intellectually lively and valuable study that shifts attention away from bodies to those body parts which made up museum collections. * Keir Waddington, British Journal for the History of Science *so this is a provocative, well researched, and elegantly written book. [Alberti] has reconstructed a persuasive history of the changing contexts of practices, meaning, and function of medical museums. This book nicely crosses disciplinary boundaries and will appeal to museologists, medical historians, anthropologists, art historians, and museum professionals. * Shauna Devine, Bulletin of the History of Medicine *Table of Contents1. Introduction: A Parliament of Monsters ; 2. Situating Pathology: A Cultural Cartography ; 3. Collecting Pathology: Fragmentation and the Traffic in Morbid Flesh ; 4. Preserving Pathology: Craft and Technique in the Medical Museum ; 5. Displaying Pathology: Maps of Morbidity ; 6. Viewing Pathology: Medical Museums and their Visitors ; 7. Conclusion: A Catalogue of Errors ; Select Bibliography

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Book SynopsisThis book describes the premier organization for the performance and funding of biomedical research in the United States. By articulating events that occurred at the National Institutes of Health from 1991-2008, this volume also examines the leadership of directors Bernadine Healy, Harold Varmus and Elias Zerhouni. To conduct his research, Dr. Kastor interviewed more than 200 people currently working at the NIH, those who have left and those funded by the institute. In an engaging and dynamic prose style, Dr. Kastor presents his findings on the operations, problems, controversies, financies, politics and structure of the NIH. The book begins by examining topics such as the NIH''s evaluation of grant funding, the argument between those who favor support of basic biomedical science versus clinical research, the inclusion of HIV/AIDS in the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and the unique features of the Clinical Center, the hospital of the NIH. The volume concludes w

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Book SynopsisThis book is an exploration of illness and healing experiences in contemporary society through the veneration of saints: primarily the twin doctors Saints Cosmas and Damian. It also follows the author''s personal journey from her role as a hematologist who inadvertently served as an expert witness in a miracle to her research as a historian on the origins, meaning and functions of saints. Sources include interviews with devotees in both North America and Europe. Cosmas and Damian were martyred around the year 300 A.D. in what is now Syria. Called the Anargyroi (without silver) because they charged no fees, they became patrons of medicine, surgery, and pharmacy as their cult spread widely across Europe. The near eastern origin explains their popularity in Byzantine and Orthodox traditions and the concentration of their shrines in Eastern Europe, Southern Italy, and Sicily. The Medici family of Florence also viewed the santi medici as patrons, and their deeds were depicted by great RenaiTrade ReviewJacalyn Duffin approaches the subject of Catholic miracle claims from the unique vantage of a medical doctor with a specialty in hematology as well as a historian of medicine. Medical Saints builds upon DUffin's earlier book, Medical Miracles: Doctors, Saints, and Healing, 1588-1999, Oxford University Press, 2009. Both books are fascinating, engagingly written accounts. Although not the first scholar to broach the subject of miracles through the lens of medical science, Duffin brings a refreshingly new perspective and style... Overall, this is a thoughtful and thought-provoking book that should prove valuable to a range of readers, including historians and sociologists of medicine and religion, as well as believers and skeptics of the miraculous. * Journal of the History of Medicine *Medical Saints is a thoroughly interesting and dynamic study * Christopher D. L. Johnson, Religion *Table of ContentsList of Illustrations ; List of Tables ; Prologue ; Acknowledgements ; Chapter One: Medical Miracle ; Chapter Two: Doctor Twins: from Cyrrhus to Toronto ; Chapter Three: Talking to Pilgrims in the New World ; Chapter Four: Chasing Saints in the Old World ; Chapter Five: Miracles, Medicine, and MEDLINE ; Chapter Six: Conclusion: Home to the Clinic ; Epilogue ; Tables ; Notes ; Bibliography ; Index

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Book SynopsisThe question typically asked about complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is whether it works. However, an issue of equal or greater significance is why it is supposed to work. The Healing Gods: Complementary and Alternative Medicine in Christian America explains how and why CAM entered the American biomedical mainstream and won cultural acceptance, even among evangelical and other theologically conservative Christians, despite its ties to non-Christian religions and the lack of scientific evidence of its efficacy and safety.Before the 1960s, most of the practices Candy Gunther Brown considers-yoga, chiropractic, acupuncture, Reiki, Therapeutic Touch, meditation, martial arts, homeopathy, anticancer diets-were dismissed as medically and religiously questionable. These once-suspect health practices gained approval as they were re-categorized as non-religious (though generically spiritual) health-care, fitness, or scientific techniques. Although CAM claims are similar to religious Trade ReviewDr. Brown gives religious people of all faiths a very useful and learned approach to complementary and alternative medicine and how to integrate it with their spirituality and healing practices * Herbert Benson, MD, Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School *Table of ContentsAbbreviations ; Introduction: Why is Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) Supposed to Work? ; 1. Is CAM Religious? ; 2. Yoga: I Bow to the God within You ; 3. Is CAM Christian? ; 4. I Love My Chiropractor! ; 5. Does CAM Work, and is it Safe? ; 6. Acupuncture: Reclaiming Ancient Wisdom ; 7. How did CAM become Mainstream? ; 8. Energy Medicine: How Her Karma Ran over His Dogma ; Conclusion: Why does it Matter if CAM is Religious (and not Christian)-even if it Works? ; Bibliography ; Index

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Book SynopsisSexual Inversion was the first English medical textbook about homosexuality. It had a chequered publishing history, going through five editions between 1896 and 1915. This edition, with a long critical introduction, places the book in its intellectual and social contexts, and considers the historiography surrounding this important work.Trade Review'It is extremely important that such books are reprinted because they offer a fresh perspective on an essential moment in gay and sexological history, on the making of the homosexual and out of the ashes of sodomites, pederasts and tribades. Many scholars discuss such books and often condemn them without even having read them or understood them within the context of their time. Crozier offers us the opportunity to get intimately acquainted with a book that represented a momentous beginning for serious debates on same-sex pleasures in the English-speaking world.' - Gert Hekma, History of Psychiatry 'Ivan Crozier has done a great service in returning to historians the first English edition in all its richness. No doubt there will be an appreciative audience who will welcome Crozier's ability to combine fine history of medicine with history of sexuality...Crozier's meticulous annotation and complete references, in particular to German, French and Italian literature of the period that is missing from the original publication, enables historians to identify easily the primary sources on which Sexual Inversion was based. At the same time, these detailed annotations reveal Crozier's deep knowledge of nineteenth-century medical literature about sexual perversions, and this work will be appreciated by all historians with an eye for detail.' - Chiara Beccalossi, Social History of Medicine 'Crozier is to be congratulated for bringing to our attention an important contribution to the debate on human sexuality.' MetascienceTable of ContentsIntroduction: Havelock Ellis, John Addington Symonds and the Construction of Sexual Inversion ; I.Crozier Ellis and Symonds' Sexual Inversion chapters Ellis and Symonds Sexual Inversion Appendices Complete Bibliography

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Book SynopsisRichard B. Welbourn, a retired endocrine surgeon who has written two books on the subject, has compiled the definitive history of the new and advancing discipline of endocrine surgery. The book traces the history of endocrine surgery from its origins to the 1980s, detailing the stories behind the surgery of each gland. A valuable biographical index containing basic information as well as the ideas and achievements of great names in the field will prove an invaluable resource.Topics include: Evolution of Endocrine Surgery; The Pituitary; The Thyroid; Thyroid Cancer; The Adrenal Glands; The Parathyroid Glands; The Endocrine Gut and Pancreas; Islet Cell Transplantation; Multiple Endocrine Adenopathy and Paraendocrine Syndromes; Cancer of the Breast and Prostate; Essential and Renal Hypertension; Surgical Stress. The book also includes more than 80 photos and diagrams. A chronological table shows the main events described in the text in their temporal context via mileTable of ContentsForeword by Oliver H. Beahrs Preface Evolution of Endocrine Surgery The Thyroid The Pituitary The Adrenal Glands The Parathyroid Glands The Endocrine Gut and Pancreas Multiple Endocrine Adenopathy and Paraendocrine Syndromes Various Topics Cancer of the Breast and Prostate by RA Sellwood Essential and Renal Hypertension Surgical Stress Appendix Biographical Index Subject Index

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Book SynopsisA groundbreaking medical and social history of a devastating hereditary neurological disorder once demonized as “the witchcraft disease”Trade ReviewWinner of the 2009 American Medical Writers Association Medical Book Award in the Healthcare Professionals (non-physician) category, given by the American Medical Writers Association.“Wexler provides an accessible account of a disease in history. A richness of context gives her study its strength and character.”—Charles E. Rosenberg, Harvard University“This is a remarkable story of ‘St. Vitus' Dance’ (Huntington's Chorea) from many perspectives: personal, historical and social. Its meticulous history, drawn from archives and personal experience details how this late-onset hereditary disease was viewed not only medically but personally and socially by family members, neighbors and friends of afflicted individuals. This is a must read for anyone interested in the social history and policy surrounding hereditary disease.”—Garland Allen, Washington University in St. Louis“This book is an engaging chronicle of how the lived experience of illness in a family and community transforms over centuries into an intensely monitored and medicalized hereditary disease. Wexler does what historians do best: she folds what we take now to be a straightforward phenomenon, Huntington’s disease, back into the story of its making. By doing so, she tells us something profound about how we imagine ourselves and how we are connected to one another.”—Rosemarie Garland-Thomson, author of Extraordinary Bodies: Figuring Physical Disability in American Literature and Culture“A brave and pioneering work.”—Daniel Kevles, author of In the Name of Eugenics: Genetics and the Uses of Human Heredity “Alice Wexler has once again accomplished the near impossible by writing a fascinating academic page-turner. Filled with truth and brilliance throughout, The Woman Who Walked into the Sea is an amazing book that leaves the reader not only better informed, but materially enriched, moved by the experience, and not wanting it to end.”—Carole Browner, University of California, Los Angeles

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Book SynopsisWhen plague broke out in Manchuria in 1910 as a result of transmission from marmots to humans, it struck a region struggling with the introduction of Western medicine. This book covers the complex political and economic background of early twentieth-century Manchuria and then moves on to the plague itself.Trade Review“A timely and fascinating topic.”—Susan D. Jones, University of Minnesota -- Susan D. Jones"Employing a comprehensive ecological framework, Dr. Summers deftly weaves history, biology and geopolitics for a nuanced explanation of the last plague pandemic outbreak with important lessons for our millennium."—Guenter B. Risse, author of Plague, Fear and Politics in San Francisco’s Chinatown (Hopkins 2012) -- Guenter B. Risse"A well-documented and analytical book and by far the best book on the analysis of the complexity of geopolitics in dealing with and subduing one of the worst plague epidemics."—Sin-Kiong WONG, National University of Singapore -- Sin-Kiong WONG“This brief work is a useful adjunct, summary source for students and persons interested in public health.”—Frederick Holmes, Journal of the History of Medicine -- Frederick Holmes * Journal of the History of Medicine *

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Book Synopsis1. The Early Surgeon-Anatomists.- 2. Physiology of the Exocrine Pancreas.- 3. The Endocrine Pancreas.- 4. Acute Pancreatitis.- 5. Chronic Pancreatitis, Including Pancreatic Lithiasis.- 6. Pancreatic Cysts, Pseudocysts, and Cystic Tumors.- 7. Trauma to the Pancreas.- 8. Congenital Anomalies.- 9. Tumors of the Ampulla of Vater and Pancreas (Non-Islet Cell).- 10. Treatment of Pancreatic and Ampullary Cancer.- 11. Progress in the Diagnosis of Pancreatic Diseases.- 12. Transplantation of the Pancreas and Islet Cells.- 13. The Lessons of History and Their Application to the Future.- Appendix: Notes on the Development of Pancreatology: Progress in Communications and Related Professional Societies.- Name Index.Trade ReviewFrom the reviews: "Although this book focuses on the history of the pancreas, it is a fascinating retreat into many other aspects of the history of medicine. John Howard and Walter Hess have spent their professional lives as academic pancreatic surgeons. Their book is the culmination of a prodigious effort to bring together a literature that begins with the Greek anatomist and surgeon Herophilus, who first described the pancreas around 300 b.c., and ends with the modern-day physicians and scientists who continue to expand our knowledge of the pancreas. History books can sometimes be a dull catalogue of events. Howard and Hess have made the journey personal with their insights into each investigator and into the ways in which various discoveries were made. Many of these discoveries were not focused efforts to understand the pancreas but observations made serendipitously. We are also treated to glimpses into the lives of many famous people, some of whom are well known for their discoveries outside the study of the pancreas but who also provided new knowledge of the anatomy and function of the pancreas. This well-organized book begins with early observations of the anatomy of the pancreas and accounts of the early experiments conducted to determine its function. We are brought from one of the first descriptions of the pancreas, as a "cushion of the stomach and pad supporting the vessels," to the discovery of the pancreatic duct by Johann Georg Wirsung in 1642. Wirsung made this discovery when he was a medical student in Padua, Italy, where he performed the autopsies before his mentor, Johann Wesling, presented the demonstration-lectures to the public in the anatomy theater. The next year, Wirsung was assassinated. His mentor, Wesling, was accused of the crime, the motive for which was rumored to be jealousy, but was eventually acquitted. Such vignettes add spice to the history of these discoveries and offer insight into the people who had a role in the history of knowledge about the pancreas and the times in which they lived. The studies that led to the determination of the function of the exocrine pancreas include those of Johann Conrad Brunner, who examined the effect of ligation of the pancreatic duct in dogs, the work of others who determined the acidity of pancreatic juice by tasting it, and Tiedemann and Gmelin's identification of the role of pancreatic juice and bile in digestion. Subsequent chapters focus on the history of acute and chronic pancreatitis, the discovery of the pancreatic islets and their relation to diabetes, and the identification of various tumors specific to this gland. The development of interventional approaches is presented in detail, including the first endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography in 1965 by Rabinov and Simon, radiologists at Boston's Beth Israel Hospital, and the Whipple procedure in 1934 by Allen Whipple at the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in New York. Many medical history books would stop at this point. This book, however, continues the journey into the present, bringing us up to date on contemporary researchers, new surgical procedures including islet-cell transplantation, and recently discovered genes. Although I initially found the size of this textbook daunting, the book is easy to read. This is in part owing to the fascinating portrayal of each of the major players who participated in developing our present understanding of the pancreas. It also reflects the authors' understanding of the history of medicine itself -- especially how discoveries were made before the era of high technology. This book will benefit not only anyone interested in the pancreas and the gastrointestinal tract, but also readers who want insights into the history of medicine." (Steven D. Freedman, M.D., Ph.D. in the New England Journal of Medicine, September 2003) "History Of The Pancreas creates a layered timeline meant to record the major discoveries surrounding the organ … . In sum, this treatise serves to outline the pancreas for clinicians and surgeons who now can use the information to formulate better approaches to patient treatment." (John Aiello, The Electric Review, January/February, 2009)Table of ContentsForeword. Preface. Acknowledgments. About the Authors. 1. The Early Surgeon-Anatomists. 2. Physiology of the Exocrine Pancreas. 3. The Endocrine Pancreas. 4. Acute Pancreatitis. 5. Chronic Pancreatitis, Including Pancreatic Lithiasis. 6. Pancreatic Cysts, Pseudocysts, and Cystic Tumors. 7. Trauma to the Pancreas. 8. Congenital Anomalies. 9. Tumors of the Ampulla of Vater and Pancreas (Non-Islet Cell). 10. Treatment of Pancreatic and Ampullary Cancer. 11. Progress in the Diagnosis of Pancreatic Diseases. 12. Transplantation of the Pancreas and Islet Cells. 13. The Lessons of History and Their Application to the Future. Appendix: Notes on the Development of Pancreatology: Progress in Communications and Related Professional Societies. Index of Persons. Index of Terminology.

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Book SynopsisA stirring tale of survival, thanks to man's best friend ... reflects a transcendent understanding and impeccable research.-Seattle TimesTrade Review"Starred Review. A riveting epic." -- Kirkus Reviews"A remarkable adventure story....The Salisburys convey the brutal conditions of the trail convincingly enough to make you shiver in your beach chair." -- Newsday

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Book Synopsis"A timely, fair-minded and crisply written account."—New York Times Book ReviewTrade Review"This is a well-researched portrayal of immunisation, from the earliest pioneers to an arm of preventive medicine now thoroughly entangled in politics, commerce and public relations." New Scientist "For those interested in the politics and debate of compulsory vaccination, and the personalities involved in all sides of the fight, Vaccine is a good read." Nature "One of the joys of Allen's well-researched but never boring 500-page history is that he pricks both camps, taking a critical look at both the anti-vaccinists' championing of pseudo-science and the medical establishment's repeated tendency to downplay the genuine dangers of vaccine side-effects." The Guardian "A fascinating, meticulously researched history of vaccination which is admirable for its even-handedness." The Independent"

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Book SynopsisIn 1901 William Bateson, Professor of Biology at Cambridge, published a renewed version of a lecture which he had delivered the year before to the Royal Horticultural Society in London (reprinted in the book as an appendix). In this lecture he recognized the importance of the work completed by Gregor Mendel in 1865, and brought it to the notice of the scientific world. Upon reading Bateson''s paper, Archibald Garrod realized the relevance of Mendel''s laws to human disease and in 1902 introduced Mendelism to medical genetics. The first part of A Century of Mendelism in Human Genetics takes a historical perspective of the first 50 years of Mendelism, including the bitter argument between the Mendelians and the biometricians. The second part discusses human genetics since 1950, ending with a final chapter examining genetics and the future of medicine. The book considers the genetics of both single-gene and complex diseases, human cancer genetics, genetic linkage, and natural sTable of ContentsPart 1: The First Fifty Years of Mendelism. Part 2: Human Genetics from 1950.

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Book SynopsisHow has a medical practice that carries substantial risk to the patient and offers very little actual benefit become so widely accepted by parents and fiercely advocated by the medical community? Historian of medicine David Gollaher tells the strange history of medicine''s oldest enigma and most persistent ritual in Circumcision. From the extraordinarily painful initiation rite of the ancient Egyptians, through the Hebrew purification ritual, through circumcision''s use by the rising medical community in the nineteenth century as prevention for ailments ranging from bedwetting to paralysis, the great mystery has been the persistence of the practice through vastly different social contexts.Trade Review"A fascinating and comprehensive history....Informative, highly readable, and completely painless." Kirkus Reviews

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Book SynopsisFrom Beethoven to Oscar Wilde, from Van Gogh to Hitler, Deborah Hayden throws new light on the effects of syphilis on the lives and works of seminal figures from the fifteenth to the twentieth centuries.Writing with remarkable insight and narrative flair, Hayden argues that biographers and historians have vastly underestimated the influence of what Thomas Mann called this exhilarating yet wasting disease. Shrouded in secrecy, syphilis was accompanied by wild euphoria and suicidal depression, megalomania and paranoia, profoundly affecting sufferers'' worldview, their sexual behaviour, and their art. Deeply informed and courageously argued, Pox has been heralded as a major contribution to our understanding of genius, madness, and creativity.

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Book SynopsisReflecting on the connection between the rise in chronic immune disorders and toxic environmental and lifestyle patterns, herbalist and acupuncturist Jason Elias and collaborator Katherine Ketcham looked to the 5,000-year-old The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Medicine to seek clues for restoring the balance of body and mind. In Chinese Medicine for Maximum Immunity, Elias and Ketcham show how to use the preventive strategies and gentle, supportive remedies of traditional Chinese medicine to heal contemporary chronic illnesses and bolster immunity. The book teaches readers how to identify which element--Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water--most directly influences them and how to correct imbalances that can lead to particular physical, emotional, and spiritual disorders with step-by-step instruction for using stress-reduction techniques, diet and exercise, herbs, and acupressure.

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Book SynopsisThis path--breaking book examines our attitudes to the senses from antiquity through to the present day. Robert Jutte explores a wealth of different traditions, images, metaphors and ideas that have survived through time and describes how sensual impressions change the way in which we experience the world.Trade Review'Jutte’s ambitious yet accessible book offers a lucid and judicious summary of research in this new and expanding field, as well as making a contribution of its own, distinguishing three periods in the history of the senses and offering intelligent speculations about future developments.' Peter Burke, Professor of Cultural History, University of Cambridge 'Stimulating and impressive... In this pioneering study Jutte unfolds a panorama of how societies have been fascinated or unsettled by any of the five senses, and invites the reader to respond with curiosity, humour and profound interest to follow through his discussion from antiquity to visions of the future.' Dr Ulinka Rublack, University of CambridgeTable of ContentsList of Illustrations. Tuning Up Conspicuous Manifestations - (Un-)Timely Reflections. Part I Senses and Historicity. 1. Approaching the Superhistorical. Part II The Traditional Order of the Sense: From Antiquity to the Early Modern Era. 2.Conceptions: The Sensorium. 3.Classifications: The Hierarchy of the Senses. 4. Representations: Allegories. 5. Practices: The Senses and their Ailments. Part III From the World of the Senses to the World of Reason. (Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries). 6. Philosophical Sensualism in the Age of Sensibility. 7.The Senses and Aesthetics. 8. The Education of the Senses. 9. The Transformation of the Senses by Industrialization and Technology. 10. Experimental Physiology and the Separation of the Senses. Part IV The 'Rediscovery' of the Senses in the Twentieth Century. 11. Touching - or The New Pleasure in the Body. 12. Tasting - or What do Fast Food and Nouvelle Cuisine Share in Common?. 13. Scenting - or From Deodorization to Reodorization. 14. Listening Effects - or The Art and Power of Noise. 15. Ways of Seeing -or The Human Rights of the Eye. 16. Psi-Phenomena - or The Exploration of Extra-Sensory Perception. Outlook. 17. Cyberspace and the Future of the Senses. Notes. Index

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