Great Feuds in Medicine (Hardcover)

~ (Author), Harold Hellman (Author) "In the 17th century it had been "known" for some 1,400 years that the blood was created in the liver, moved outward from the heart..." (more)
Key Phrases: reticular hypothesis, biomedical world, animal electricity, Nobel Prize, New York, Three Essays (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In 1761 German physician Leopold Auenbrugger remarked, "It has always been the fate of those who have illustrated or improved the arts and sciences by their discoveries to be beset by envy, malice, hatred, destruction and calumny." Following Great Feuds in Science, Hellman (Beyond Your Senses) now documents 10 dramatic medical disputes. British anatomist William Harvey's 1628 discovery of blood circulation challenged anatomical theory and caused his ostracism by the scientific community. In the late 18th-century, electrical disputes raged between Galvani whose "animal electricity" theory, to modern sensibilities, borders on the occult, though it garnered immediate support and prefigured current studies of electricity and paralysis and Volta, who worked to disprove Galvani. Claude Bernard's experiments on animals, in his studies of the nervous system, caused outrage among antivivisectionists and led to his being disowned by his family. Hungarian obstetrician Ignaz Semmelweis was committed to a mental hospital after the Viennese medical establishment rejected his hypothesis that unsanitary conditions in his workplace (doctors went from an autopsy to a birth without washing their hands) caused the high infection and death rate among patients. Other chapters address "Freud bashing," Sabin vs. Salk (polio vaccine) and Gallo vs. Montagnier (AIDS). Hellman eschews comprehensiveness for pith and entertainment, neglecting no unusual "twist," "strange coincidence," "cloud of suspicion" or "lucky break" to heighten the drama of these medical milestones. (Mar. 9)Forecast: Hellman's well-received books and articles (in the New York Times, Omni, Reader's Digest, etc.), and the success of popular science writing ensure his continuing appeal to serious science buffs, history fans, and casual readers alike.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From The New England Journal of Medicine

Inundated by medical journals, surrounded by news media with health and science reporters, bombarded with invitations to conferences, and ensnared in the World Wide Web, physicians and the public have come to expect medical discoveries and breakthroughs to appear constantly and to be incorporated instantly into clinical practice or further research. Hal Hellman, a writer of popular science, has provided a valuable service in his new book, Great Feuds in Medicine, revealing how difficult it can be to create and disseminate innovative medical information. Hellman has assembled 10 chapters in medical history, a series of contentious cases with ``some special drama or scientific interest'' to highlight the ``human enterprise'' of medical discovery. His stories cover a broad span of time, from the work of Harvey in the early 1600s to research on the human immunodeficiency virus in the 1980s, and an equally wide range of disciplines, including physiology, microbiology, neuroscience, psychiatry, and molecular biology. Most chapters tackle pivotal moments in medical thinking, when dramatic ideas or experiments transformed the field. After each such moment followed a time of discontent and upheaval, when challenges arose and information was dispersed, before the paradigm shifts and discoveries were accepted with broad consensus.

Collectively, the vignettes illustrate the personal perils of being an explorer; medical researchers who aspire to greatness ought to have a thick skin. Before ascending to the pantheon of medicine, most of these heroes had to suffer through bitter attacks on their work and their character. Pasteur, Freud, Harvey, Bernard, Salk, Semmelweis -- each was prey to criticism, envy, competition, resistance, and dismissal before, with the passage of time, their contributions were accepted and acknowledged. The scientific process is revealed to be less pure and pristine than many imagine. Nationalist bias, professional entrenchment, institutional bureaucracy, religious sentiments, and cultural tradition all influence the development and adoption of medical knowledge, and thus have an impact at least as important as the scientific method itself.

This is medical history as personal rivalry; hence, the feuds. Hellman relishes the anecdote, the off-hand comment, and the individual foible that make real people of these legendary heroes. Vanity, competitiveness, self-doubt, jealousy -- all these human frailties appear in great abundance. In some instances, this approach clearly enriches our understanding of seminal physicians, yielding insight into their ambition and brilliance. It is enlightening to be reminded that the acceptance or rejection of medical ideas frequently hinges on the personality of the individual researcher and on that of his or her competitors. The showmanship of medical discovery -- the ability to illustrate a point dramatically in public ceremony -- emerges as a lost art. Certain figures, such as Pasteur and Freud, prove so compelling that the controversy surrounding their discoveries extends into the historical assessment of their lives. Hellman notes how the feuds ignited by these men turned into battles among their various biographers and historians.

How do differing opinions, conflicting data, disparate observations, contrasting philosophies, personal rivalries, and pointed conjecture influence the growth of medical knowledge? This is the unspoken question underlying Hellman's book, and it is a critical one for understanding the way in which science and clinical practice evolve. The resolution of medical disputes is a fascinating and important process, and as Hellman shows, it is often governed by much more than cold, hard facts or data. Hellman provides interesting anecdotes that will capture the attention of a lay audience and build appreciation for human interaction in medical discovery. However, his method falls short of explaining how medicine changes over time, and his reliance on secondary sources means that there is little new information. The narration lacks the richness and depth favored by professional historians of medicine. Those seeking an introduction to the history of medicine will find the chapters readable and free of technical jargon. Yet the disputes Hellman chooses seem oddly petty -- personal but not intellectual -- and surprisingly devoid of the compelling drama created by real tensions in the scientific community. In relying on short case studies, Hellman misses an opportunity for tackling the broader meaning of dispute and debate as part of the scientific and medical process.

The word ``feud'' connotes a bitter, festering, long-standing, and somewhat irrational quarrel -- an argument for the sake of an argument. In the long and colorful history of medicine, there have undoubtedly been many feuds. Some persist to this day. Great Feuds in Medicine serves up some of the most exciting disputes. These stories make for fascinating, if not entirely satisfying, reading.

Harold J. Burstein, M.D., Ph.D.
Copyright © 2001 Massachusetts Medical Society. All rights reserved. The New England Journal of Medicine is a registered trademark of the MMS.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (February 2, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471347574
• ISBN-13: 978-0471347576
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,410,266 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Serious Fun, May 17, 2001

By A Customer

What a delightful page-turner this book turned out to be. I needed information, fast, and this sounded like a good buy. It sure was. The author makes very complex ideas and medical procedures understandable for lay people, but doesn't sacrifice the seriousness of his subject. His wry wit does not demean the eminent and not-so-eminent figures he writes about but, rather, brings them back to life. In fact, the author himself seems to be sitting in the room with you, relaxed and talking about some people you both know.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Engaging overview, February 28, 2001

By	J. Golick (Brooklyn, NY United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

A sprightly romp through three hundred years of medical history, focusing on ten major contretemps. Entertaining and educational, it's also a cautionary tale for would-be medical researchers: many of the "heroes" of these tales (Semmelweis, Bernard, Franklin) meet extremely unkind fates. If you enjoyed Hellman's previous outing on feuds in science, you'll find here more of the same.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Really well-written book about ridiculous feuds..., April 15, 2005

By	K. L Sadler (Freedom, Pa. USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Men. I can say that, because all of these feuds involved men, except for one concerning Rosalind Franklin and the DNA fiasco...with one of my least favorite scientists, Watson.
It never ceases to amaze me the amount of ego that gets involved in scientific and medical discoveries. It's humongous! Fights concerning rights of discoveries or inventions, fights concerning doing the right thing for the patient (rather than the doctor), etc. have existed since the beginning of time and are continuing today. The very last section of the book had to do with the discovery of the AIDS virus by Gallo (American) and Montagnier (French).

Some of the earlier feuds had to do with the discovery of how the body really works through doing dissections of both animals and human cadavers. This was frowned upon by the Church, which basically ran society during the middle ages and into the Renaissance, but some brave men like Harvey and Di Vinci went ahead and did what needed to be done. So when they actually published their findings, all hell often broke lose. This often put these physicians and scientists at risk for life, but their refusal to rely on ancient theories from Galen is what paved the way for modern medicine.

I enjoyed the way Hellman writes. He's a little bit of of a cynic and smart aleck, just my type...since I'm that way myself. The information is concise and interesting. I knew about some of the fights from previous medical histories, but Hellman often gave information that wasn't available in these books. The story concerning Semmelweis who discovered the real reasons behind women dying in childbirth from pueperal fever (exhange of germs from cadavers to women in labor by doctors not cleaning up prior to touching those women) is probably one of the saddest stories I have ever read, especially since he ended up being brutalized in an insane asylum, and it killed him at an early age.

This should be on a list of required readings for medical and research students. Perhaps if more of them realized how ridiculous these spats are, especially if they involve ego and money (which is a current huge problem thanks to the pharmaceutical companies and kickbacks to physicians), they would learn to allow ethics to govern more of their behavior.

People who enjoy medical history, and teachers can use this book to interest students in medicine and research, because these are areas of a good percent of the jobs today.

Karen Sadler
Science Education