Customer Reviews

The Medical Detectives (Truman Talley)

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I brought a bunch of books home from my office and this was one of them. I had forgotten about it, and I have just read it again. Roueche was an excellent journalist writing for the New Yorker. He wrote about public health starting way back in 1944. This book is fascinating for several reasons. Not only is it a good explanation of what epidemiologists do for a living (the ones who don't deal with Level 4 viruses but the everyday disasters that still happen), but it is also a great history of public health in the U.S. Roueche was not a disaster monger. Rather he wrote about the men and women who literally had to hunt down clues about diseases, food-borne pathogens, stupid things parents did that led to the development of child safe medicine containers, etc. Some of these men and women put their lives on the line, and continue to do so when there are outbreaks of emerging diseases like Hantavirus in the Four Corners region, dealing with increasing cases of food poisoning, and now with the problems with prions (mad cow disease). He wrote in such a way to give us history and details that many other writers of health history often leave out. The information concerning the increasing amount of rabies being seen in the U.S. was news to me...I always thought it was native to this country, but apparently before the 1950's it was rarely seen. The chapter on aspirin, gave wonderful historical background, and brought attention to the need to make children understand that any medicine, whether flavored or not, is not candy. This book is a good recommendation for students in med school, for those who are interested in public health, and I think for high school science students to see the practical application of what they learn. I am going to go look for more writings of his...they are too enjoyable to miss! Karen Sadler, Science Education, University of Pittsburgh

This book is a collection of articles, written by Berton Rouche and published in the New Yorker, about medical investigations that took place in the US from the 1940's to late 1980's. Though this book would obviously be interesting to medical students, you don't have to understand much about medicine to enjoy it. Most of the medical terms used are either defined or explained in context, and all facts relevant to the cases are clearly stated. Each case is presented as a mystery that unfolds as the investigators search for the cause of a patient's illness. First, we are given the basic facts of the case: the patient's condition and symptoms, his or her environment and activities at the time of the onset of illness, and the investigator/doctor's initial diagnosis or impressions. Next, we are shown how an investigator makes discoveries leading to a diagnosis and treatment. Finally, we follow the health officials as they track the source of the epidemic.
Though I have no connection to the medical field, I found these articles very interesting, and I think I've learned a lot from them. However, I wish someone could have added a post-script to each of the articles with an update on some of the information. For example, one of the articles (written in 1944) said that 2% of American pigs were carriers of trichinosis. I would like to know what the statistics are now. Besides that minor complaint, I loved the book and would recommend it to any curious reader who loves to learn about new things.

Berton Roueché wrote for the "New Yorker" magazine for almost half a century, and was winner of the 1950 Albert Lasker Medical Journalism Award. His many volumes on physicians and medical detectives, including this book, were collected from his articles in the "New Yorker."

"The Medical Detectives" volume II is great bedtime reading, because the good guys, i.e. physicians and epidemiologists always get their villain (whether it's a germ, poison gas, or a disgruntled boyfriend). Volume II's twenty-three case histories date from 1947 to 1984, before the days when Big Insurance dictated how long patients would stay in hospitals and what kind of treatment they would receive. Some of the doctors in this book actually made house calls! A couple of the cases really stayed with me, because the patients were kept in the hospital for weeks at a time just to track down a diagnosis. In one case, a man had the hiccups. In the other, a woman had a headache. Can you guess what would happen to these patients if they went to an emergency room, today?

Anyone who is interested in medical detection will be both engrossed and instructed by Roueché's careful, detailed true-life mysteries. The cases contained in this volume range from the man who hiccupped for 27 years through the deliberate poisoning of a family. One of my favorites from 1948 is called, "The Fog". This does not refer to John Carpenter's famous 1980 horror movie, but a true story that is in some ways even more frightening than anything Hollywood could produce. It takes place in Donora, Pennsylvania, a gritty mill town along the Monongahela River, which is infamous for its fogs: "They are greasy, gagging fogs, often intact even at high noon, and they sometimes last for two or three days."

The Donora `Death Fog' killed 20 people and left hundreds injured and gasping for breath. Roueché tells this story of America's worst air pollution disaster through the observations of eye-witnesses, one of them a physician. London usually comes to mind when Death comes stalking through a thick fog, but this story is every bit as atmospheric as one by A. Conan Doyle, and "The Fog's" detectives are real people.

This collection of true medical stories starts off a bit slowly, but you will end up wishing for Volume III.

This is a nice collection of stories, most of which originally appeared in The New Yorker, detailing medical mysteries from the 1940s through the 1980s. Its interesting to see how medical knowledge has developed over the years and how similar mysteries confront medical investigators time and time again. It would have been nice to have seen some updates of some more recent information, particularly on some of the older cases, but nevertheless this is an enjoyable collection of real life puzzlers.

Berton Rouche wrote for the New Yorker magazine for many years, and received numerous awards for his "Annals of Medicine" department. His tales (and these are that, 30-page articles) of epidemiology chronicle the discovery of diseases new and old, and the scientist-detectives who track these diseases down and find their sources and their cures.

You do not have to be a scientist to appreciate these accounts: being a real-life mystery buff will do. Rouche, now deceased, wrote with an intelligence and clarity that should be the model for--and envy of--all writers.

"The Medical Detectives" includes some of my favorite tales--I've been reading and re-reading Rouche for a long time: "Eleven Blue Men," the discovery on the sidewalks of New York of eleven men who were bright blue; "The Huckleby Hogs," one of the first-ever journalistic accounts of the hazards of mercury poisoning; "Aspirin," about the history, benefits and, yes, the dangers of aspirin.

I highly recommend "The Medical Detectives." Other collections of his articles can be found in your library, and include "Eleven Blue Men," and "The Incurable Wound."

Roueche did a fabulous job of presenting some fascinating cases of infectious disease and public health. This book is gripping enough to keep the attention of readers who already have knowledge of disease and public health, yet explains complex medical terminology simply enough that anyone should be able to enjoy this book. I highly recommend it!

This is the best book about epidemiology I've ever read. Many people, myself included, often become lulled into feeling like epidemiology is limited to the analysis of huge and dry data sets. This book is inspirational in that it focuses on the more human aspects of epidemiology, and shows how one can accomplish very much with very little. There is a small amount of theory in the book, but it has been woven into the stories so well that one may not even notice. Roueche does a great job of giving the reader enough clues to make the stories interesting. This is true whether or not one has any background in epidemiology, public health or infectious diseases. The book will appeal to anyone with even a mild interest in medicine or public health, and expertise in these fields will not make it any less interesting or inspiring.

This "classic collection of award-winning medical investigative reporting", published in 1988, is an excellent book. Each of the 25 case studies originally appeared as an "Annals of medicine" piece in the New Yorker, and there's not a dud in the bunch.

Most of the cases happened in the 1950's or 1960's, when sophisticated, CSI-era analytical techniques were unavailable. Nonetheless, there is no sense that these stories are dated. Roueche is a natural storyteller and has the rare ability to present technical aspects in a way that is intelligible to the non-expert reader, at just the right level of detail.

It's like 25 "House" episodes, but without the gratuitous obnoxiousness, condescension to the reader, or the ridiculous constraint that only a limping, misanthropic painkiller addict can be right.

Many stories in this book reminds me of the famous essay "Silent Spring". The writing style is extremely accessible to every body and yet delivers a significant amount of knowledge, advice, and sometimes wisdom. The author carefully explains medical terms and implications, thus easing the reader's mind without using a medical book. This book is highly recommended to anyone who has a curious mind.

This book was so enjoyable that I had to ration it out, a chapter a day, to make it last. Otherwise I would have gone through it in a day. Each medical mystery immediately draws you in. You learn a lot, even though the writing level is entertaining and undemanding. I highly recommend this book, and plan to read other books by this author.