Customer Reviews

Microbe Hunters

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I first read this book when I was in grammar school (K-6 level)and found it absolutely fascinating. I couldn't put it down. As a graduate of UC-Berkeley (BA, MS in biology), I highly recommend it not only to aspiring scientists, but to all who enjoy 'mysteries' - true life mysteries! When I was a med student at Albany Medical College, we took physiology and pharmacology in the "T-Smith" building. Theobald Smith was a grad of AMC. You will find his story here in "Ticks and Texas Fever". My copy is falling apart, but I consider it an old friend. It is one book that should be in everyone's library. I disagree (as one reviewer said) that it is "racist". I also disagree that it is not for youngsters. Get this book and treasure it!

Years ago, as a nursing student, I was enthralled by the intrigue created in the history of microbiology by the author. The most famous scientists I had studied about in textbooks suddenly became my heroes, discovering invisible enemies of humanity, and waging all-out wars in their battles to save us. To this day, I feel this book did more in promoting good handwashing techniques than all my nursing instructors ever could. I was thrilled to find the book still accessible through Amazon. It is a "must read" for all healthcare personnel.

This book should put all other science stories to shame! First published in 1926, de Kruif elegantly and creatively describes the life and times of microbe hunters, from the very first man to peer into a lense and see the "wretched beasties." The stories are humerous, includes the family influences and accidental occurances with each discovery. A great addition for any science or medical buff! Also enjoyable but a little more tough to read "The Hot Zone" and "The Andromeda Strain" and "The Comming Plauge". I hope you enjoy it as much as I have!! :

Well written history of the earliest researchers and explorers of the microscopic world. The author provides histories that reveial the human side of these early explorers; the science is non technical so the lay person can easily follow in the foot steps of these pioners. DeKruif writes with passion and humor making this an enjoyable and informative read. Although the book was first published more than 50 years ago, it is an excellent and relevant history. I strongly recommend it to anyone with an interest in the history of science.

Wonderful book, lively prose, vivid descriptions of the dawn of modern medicine as it was developed in army hospitals, jungles, swamps, and cramped attic "laboratories." And lines like "... the fundemental sadness of Pasteur's life, ....the crown of thorns that madmen wear whose dream it is to change a world in the little seventy years they are allowed to live."

Too bad descriptions of blacks as "darkies" (1924) will keep this book out of the hands of some kids. But come on, these scientists risked their lives and very often died trying to cure the sick in Africa. So can we can cut them a little slack for not being as gloriously enlightened as us, even if they were infintely braver ?

People familiar with biethics or medicine will see a world where many ethical questions that had not been defined. For instance, informed consent and double blind trials were hardly known - almost *none* of the experimental treatments could be done legally today, even though the researchers often used themselves as subjects and died.

Being in Nursing school, it is required that I take the course Microbiology. Part of our reading materials were The Hot Zone, Demon In The Freezer, and this wonderful book I've just finished, Microbe Hunters.

Never have I read such wonderful books one right after the other. After I finished each one, I thought that one was the best book on microbes. They are all wonderful in their own ways, but this book on how it all started is endearing in that it was written so long ago (1926). When the author speaks of something happening in the 1890's, that's over a hundred years ago to us, but was just yesterday to the author.

Today, we think of ourselves as medically advanced and very knowledgeable in science. However, one hundred years from now they will look at our methods and shake their heads in wonder at how we could have done such silly things. Likewise, we wonder about microbe hunters of 100 years ago. But we would be wise to understand the baby steps they all had to take to get us where we are today.

This is truly a remarkable book on the history of how we got to where we are today. If only De Kruif could have written a similar book that takes us from 1926 until today. Alas, he died in 1971, having left us with a masterpiece.

"The Microbe Hunters" charts the amazing shift in medical knowledge from both the historical and philisophical viewpoints. Dr. de Kruif's genius lies in the fact that he can transform the highly technical jargon of medicine into a compelling story of men versus nature. It is very readable!
He maps the course that men such as Pasture and Koch blazed into the realm of scientific methodology that is still revered today. You will feel the heat of the battle as the individuals depicted herein challenged the conventional wisdom of their day and transformed medicine from superstition to a healing art.
I was first introduced to the book in a class on microbiology, but obtained a true education in how curiosity, dedication and perserverance on the part of a few pioneers changed our view of nature forever. This book is a must read for anyone wanting to undrstand numan nature or the strange and wonderful word of pathogens. As a college professor I recomend this book to anyone who wants to find the inspiration for education in one book.

I suspect that Paul De Kruif's "Microbe Hunters" has inspired more future biomedical scientists than any other book. The "Double Helix" by Nobel Laureate James D. Watson is the only competition.

"Microbe Hunters" was written in the 1920's before we knew much about DNA, before the electron microscope, before antibiotics, so much in it is dated. Yet "Microbe Hunters" gets across the excitement of research in a way that is lacking in most writings about science and scientists.

I read this book as a child and it was fascinating reading. Some of what is described is still current (Pasteur's rabies vaccine) while some treatments are long out of use (Ehrlich's "magic bullet" for syphillis was actually derived from arsenic and had a fair amount of side effects-an accurate cure would not be developed until the discovery of Penicillin). Also some of the attitudes taken by the writer are racist such as the quip along the lines that "you couldn't tell the Africans with sleeping sickness apart from the healthy ones because they were all lazy". This should remind people of the dichotomy that existed in society then. Also biology then was like a manic gold rush. There were no restrictions on testing medicenes so that famous scientific figures would test the treatments on friends, family or if they were brave, themselves. One thing that was strongly prevalent then was the optimism of a cure for the various diseases. There was no sense of a pharmeceutical industry trying to quickly bring to market a highly profitable drug, whether or not it was safe or effective or even more than slightly different from other medications. There was no sense of cynicism then. Once the germ theory was developed, people realized what lived amidst their world and sought to find ways to have people live better and healthier lives. So you can dismiss some of the outdated attitudes and ideology and see this book as specimen on a microscope slide, frozen in time, to be examined from a new perspective

Many of today's leading lights in medical research cite this book as a major influence. The language is a bit stilted by today's less literate standards but do not let that dissuade from reading it (yes, out loud if needs be) to your children. It communicates the romance of science and thrill of discovery far better than many a new work. An antidote to the lethargic pablum that is today's school texts.