Doctors and Discoveries: Lives That Created Today's Medicine (Hardcover)

~ John Galbraith Simmons (Author) "The incalculable debt of medicine to science, acquired over a little more than a century, is owed in the first instance to disciplines associated with..." (more)
Key Phrases: clonal selection theory, microbe hunters, United States, World War, Nobel Prize (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

The publisher's claim that this is the "first collective biography of medical history to be published in the last fifty years" might surprise Sherwin B. Nuland, whose Doctors: The Biography of Medicine covers some of the same individuals. Despite the overlap, this is still an excellent introduction to medical history and its most important figures. Its more than 80 chapters profile individuals responsible for many breakthroughs and advances. These range from ancient founders such as Hippocrates and Galen through the anatomist Andreas Vesalius and surgeon John Hunter to present-day HIV researchers Robert Gallo and Luc Montagnier. Each chapter is brief and readable, and covers the life and achievements of each person very well. Portraits are included for most. Only a few are women, including nursing pioneer Florence Nightingale and psychoanalyst Melanie Klein. A better choice than patent medicine queen Lydia Pinkham would have been Virginia Apgar, whose newborn scoring system bears her name. Simmons is a science writer and author of The Scientific 100: A Rating of the Most Influential Scientists, Past and Present. Recommended especially for public libraries. A.J. Wright, Univ. of Alabama Lib., Birmingham
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"an excellent introduction to medical history and its most important figures." -- Review

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 448 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; 1 edition (May 10, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0618152768
• ISBN-13: 978-0618152766
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #496,149 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book on physicians as explorers/inventors!, June 26, 2002

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

I am always on the look out for decent books that can be used to teach students about phenomenal lives and mentors. This book accurately fills that need. Most of the physicians in this book were also researchers before scientific research was even a field. Many of these men (they are mostly men) came from backgrounds that were not particularly conducive to doing medicine, let alone the research that they ended up doing. Their families were not aristrocratic or learned, many had fathers who were tradesmen...yet for some reason, they chose to enter fields of medicine. Medicine was not always the prestigious field or career that it is now. Often, it was looked down upon, especially prior to its consolidation as a science. The work that these men did helped to raise the prestige of medicine, anatomy, physiology, and neuroscience.

Medicine, like most sciences, is a long ongoing process of learning. Not just about the body, but about what chemicals and what therapies are going to work for individuals. One of the things that this book makes clear is that those who succeeded in furthering medical knowledge all possessed great curiosity as well as often possessing great courage. So many times, these guys had to buck the current establishment, whether it was clergy, current medical knowledge (often dating back to Greece even in the Middle Ages and during the Renaissance), and even governmental authority.

This book is well-written, and provides a lot of diverse stories about medical achievement mainly in European countries. There are a few chapters dedicated to women and only a couple involving men from the Middle East, none from the Orient. The author does bring up alternative medicine, but since I can think of several other medical discoveries and physician/inventors from parts of the non-European world that could and should be mentioned, I think this book should be followed by another including the inspiring stories from the rest of the world. All children and all adolescents, need to see mentors, scientists, and physicians that are like them; that it is possible to achieve in this area no matter where you are from, what gender or race or ability you have. This book is a critical and good start, but it is essential to take it farther...

It's important for kids to have diverse meanings for the word 'hero'. With so many in the sports world, in the world of entertainment, and now in the business world providing bad examples, it is paramount that teachers and parents provide alternatives to these people as to what actually constitutes a 'hero'. So many in the media and in government lambast how poorly our students are doing in science and math education, yet part of the problem lies in the fact that adults are not providing good examples of what is important and what is not. This book helps to place this critical emphasis back on the importance of intelligence, of creativity, and of compassion for fellow human beings. A truly vital book to have for educators and those who would be mentors.

Karen Sadler,
Science Education,
University of Pittsburgh

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great addition to your reference library, July 1, 2002

By	Paul Garon (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

A splendid book for writers, doctors, scientists, reference librarians and any educated reader who wants to understand the history of medicine through the biographies of its chief proponents. From Paracelsus and Harvey to Koch and Gallo, this is a highly readable history.

Many unfamiliar names lie behind numerous major discoveries and the reader is in for a real education discovering the pioneers of molecular biology, enzyme chemistry, viral theories of cancer, medical education, electrocardiography, cellular immunity and much more. A pefect gift for the young daughter or son who is looking forward to a medical career.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars How today's health practitioners work, September 7, 2002

By	Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

Centuries of research and medical insights have contributed to the fundamental principles of today's medical and research practices: Doctors & Discoveries is dedicated to the pioneers who made these initial medical discoveries. Key figures in medicine from past to present are detailed in a collective biography of medical history chronicling their lives and achievements. Solid links are drawn between discoveries, discoverers, and how today's health practitioners work.