Customer Reviews

Asleep: The Forgotten Epidemic that Remains One of Medicine's Greatest Mysteries

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Molly Caldwell Crosby's "Asleep," traces a strange malady whose origins are shrouded in mystery. Encephalitis lethargica ("a swelling of the brain that makes one sleepy") "came in two waves--the first began in 1916 and peaked in 1920." A second wave struck in 1924. Today, few people remember this scourge that killed closed to a million people all over the world. One of the victims was Crosby's grandmother, Virginia Thompson Brownlee, who became ill in 1929 at the age of sixteen but was fortunate enough to survive with limited long-term effects. Tragically, many of the afflicted were children and young adults whose brains were not yet fully developed; they were not all equipped, physically or emotionally, to battle this destructive illness.

Although the symptoms of encephalitis lethargica varied from one individual to the next, some of the manifestations were: disconnectedness from one's body, lethargy, delirium, slurred speech, stiffness, seizures, tics, Parkinsonism, and extreme personality changes. Some people became catatonic or went into a deep sleep for long periods of time. Around one third recovered, one third died, and one third survived. However, some became so disabled that they were permanently institutionalized. One common thread is that many of the sufferers had recovered from the flu before they came down with encephalitis lethargica. Even those who appeared to have recovered fully were vulnerable to recurrences years later. It was almost as if a demon lay dormant in their bodies, only to reemerge when they least expected it.

Crosby divides her book into seven chapters, each of which recounts a compelling case history, including that of Jessie Morgan, the wife of financier J. P. Morgan. The author brings her subject to life not only by delving into the experiences of individual victims, but also by exploring the careers of prominent physicians who cared for patients with this ailment. Enhancing the narrative are richly described details of the social, cultural, medical, and political climate that served as a backdrop for the pandemic. Crosby puts encephalitis lethargica in context as she recounts the horrors of World War I, the influenza outbreak that killed more than twenty million people, the building boom in New York City, the amazing technological developments of the 1920's, the Stock Market Crash, the Great Depression, advances in neuropsychiatry, epidemiology, and public health, and the construction of new facilities to house the mentally ill.

Theories abound, but to this day no one knows what causes encephalitis lethargica. Oliver Sacks, the renowned writer and neurologist who wrote about his work with encephalitis patients in "Awakenings," asserts that "this strange, often terrible disease is not extinct, only quiescent. It may well strike again in our lifetimes." "Asleep" reads like a riveting novel that one wishes were merely a nightmare invented by an imaginative writer. Unfortunately, it is all too real. Crosby's facts are meticulously documented; she includes photographs, extensive endnotes, a lengthy bibliography, and a thorough index. This is a beautifully written, lucid, multilayered, and unforgettable work of non-fiction.

From roughly 1915 to roughly 1926, the world saw an epidemic with strange symptoms. Most sufferers fell into a deep and nearly unbreakable sleep, though other experienced unending insomnia, Parkinson's-like symptoms, and even violent insanity. Neurologists at the time discovered through autopsies that sufferers of the disease experience a swelling of the hypothalamus (in the brain), and labeled the disease Encephalitis Lethargica - which is to say, a swelling of the brain that makes on sleepy.

But, this was a description of the effects of the disease, rather than a description of the cause. This book tells the story of the disease and its effects on the world (Did Woodrow Wilson contract the disease? And, did Hitler?), and it tells the story of the efforts to combat the disease and its effects on the science of neurology.

Overall, I found this to be a very interesting book. As the title suggests, when historic epidemics are discussed, Encephalitis Lethargica never seems to show up, and yet at the time it was quite famous (or infamous). The author does an excellent job of telling the story of the disease, the world it entered, and the effects it had on the world.

I have read a number of books on diseases and epidemics (yeah, my wife thinks it's a weird subject to be interested in), and some are better than others. As for this book, it was interesting from start to finish, and a cracking good read!

An interview on NPR alerted me to Ms. Crosby's book. I, too, had a grandmother diagnosed and recovered from sleeping sickness. Crosby's investigation shed light on how this disease affected families and how victims were trapped in their own bodies. Having grown up in an era where children didn't ask probing questions of family members, I found this to be a book worth sharing with siblings.

Molly Caldwell Crosby has revived awareness of an illness/disease that has been virtually forgotten. It's thankfully unknown by my generation (Gen X) and vaguely recalled by my parents' generation. My dad had a childhood friend/neighbor that supposedly died from sleeping sickness so it certainly rang a bell with him, sadly. I give this book 4 stars because there's not much "there" there. It's possibly not the author's fault as this type of encephalitis continues to be a mystery and science hasn't discovered much new information. The book contains case studies but nothing really new that could add an extra edge to the medical mystery. I really longed for photos of these victims to put a face to this disease but there's not many. What photos are included didn't do much for me at all. Other reviewers call her time period scene-setting details "fluff" and nothing, but as a history buff, I found the extra details interesting enough, if not medically informative.

What I did appreciate is discovering another author because of this book: Oliver Sacks - and figuring out I already had a unread book of his on my shelf "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat" - and I'm so glad that I now know about Mr. Sacks' body of work. I did enjoy "Asleep" but it was sort of an easy read and not something I could really sink my teeth into. It leaves you wanting more.

Ever since I read Oliver Sacks' fascinating book "Awakenings" about the decades-long deep-freeze that some victims of the 1920's epidemic of encephalitis had been put into - I'd been hoping to find some follow-up book about sleeping sickness itself. Here is that book.

Author Molly Crosby traces some of the history of the disease of encephalitis lethargica (alternately known as "sleeping sickness). She paints a picture of the early part of this century and how World War I, with the crowded, transient conditions it promoted, allowed this strange disease to get a foothold in many urban areas around the world. We're transported back to the New York of the 1920's, its chestnut vendors, trolleys, tenements. We're advanced through some of the Depression years. Crosby includes some astute economic analysis here, finding remarkable parallels between the kinds of indebtedness that triggered the 1929 Depression and our current recession. So this book offers the bonus of providing some very interesting general history about an eventful couple of decades.

The epidemic occurred in the wake of the much more widely documented influenza epidemic of 1918. The Doctors and other medical researchers who devoted themselves to the disease back then were baffled at every turn by the strange twists and turns that this lesser-known companion disease of influenza was capable of taking. Ultimately, the medical community was so frustrated by the disease's inscrutable, protean nature, that when it receded as far as being epidemic - it was shelved and almost forgotten. Crosby returns us to the heyday of encephalitis research.

This is generally a very readable, authoritative look at the frightening disease and its often long-lasting effects on the personalities and physical possibilities of its victims. However, one fault with the organization of this book is that it waits until Page 166 to define "encephalitis." It turns out that "encephalitis" by itself is a generic term that can refer to any swelling of particular key areas of the brain. Any number of diseases can result in this inflammation - including meningitis, herpes, and even measles. But the specific kind of encephalitis being examined here, the encephalitis lethargica or the disease that caused prolonged sleep disturbance, is considered a distinct entity. It might have been a good idea for Crosby to provide this explanation early in the book in order to orient readers better in the physiology of her subject.

I would also have liked to read more about current efforts to pinpoint the cause of the disease. Crosby only devotes a brief final chapter to viral causes that have been ruled out - and to the strep throat germ that is being vaguely implicated. Even though the disease remains a mystery, I'd have appreciated more details about such modern researches.

Either way though, this is an important book with profound implications for how we look at both mental and physical illness and the connection between the two. Whatever microscopic agent turns out to be the cause of the illness has the power to profoundly transform whomever it infects. Some feel that many classic fairytales as well as many modern horror stories, spanning fictions from "Sleeping Beauty" to "Dr. Caligari's Cabinet" and a myriad of our zombie tales were probably based on the all-too-real, bizarre symptoms evoked by sleeping sickness. Physically, the disease often produces many of the symptoms of Parkinson's. Emotionally, it has the power to turn previously sane, amiable people into individuals plagued by various forms of obsessive-compulsive disorder, as well as by uncontrollable impulses toward self-mutilation and homicidal rage.

So this book, even though it is about a disease that crested back in the 1920's, is as relevant as today's headlines.

I've read another of her books on Yellow Fever and thought it quite good, however, I don't think this one could have been duller. I think most of the book was filler for what little facts there were, for example, we are told too much about the doctor's lives which had nothing really do with the subject. I spent most of the tinme skimming for something worthwhile in this book. Waste of time.

I read 'Asleep' while recovering from flu and still managed to read it from beginning to end. Then I reread it after I recovered to see if the flu - mentioned in the book as a possible causal factor of sleeping sickness - had influenced my alert interest throughout the read. Nope. Don't think so. Although it lagged in a few spots, it did not drag. For those of us who enjoy medical mysteries that remain unsolved, MC Crosby's book, Asleep, is refreshing and informative medical history.

ASLEEP: THE FORGOTTEN EPIDEMIC THAT REMAINS ONE OF MEDICINE'S GREATEST MYSTERIES provides the true account of a sleeping sickness epidemic that blends case studies and interviews with family members with the story of a group of New York doctors who spent their lives seeking the cause, treatment and cure for the disease. In 1927 the disease vanished as quickly as it appeared: this examines its foundations and lasting effects.

I was really excited to read this book because Oliver Sacks's Awakenings was so fascinating, but it just didn't work for me. Lots of filler, sloppy writing, and too little substance. The author touches on a lot of different events and people connected with encephalitis lethargica, but doesn't provide enough narrative or connection or analysis to make the treatment satisfying. In places, it read strikingly like a high school research paper. Maybe, as fascinating as the disease is, there just isn't enough there to make a book out of it. I finished the book but it wasn't the treat I was expecting.

Asleep - good idea for a book, but I think Crosby ran out of material to fill it. So she spends page after page on the setting, tells lots of stories that don't seem to add up to anything, and turned a magazine article's worth of information into a book. Nice writing, too little story.