Imagine a world where there was a great chance of a mother dying right after giving birth to her child. Sounds like a pretty crazy supposition. Unfortunately, not too long ago, that was the world we called home. Nuland’s book discusses the unfortunate tragedies of puerperal fever and the journey the medical field in Europe took to discover a cause and prevention. Hand in hand, Nuland also depicts the life of Ignác Semmelweis, the unknown founder of the aforementioned cause and prevention strategies: washing hands in chloride of lime. The Doctors’ Plague is a worthwhile read based off the information provided, its ability to break new ground, and the credibility of its author and sources. The overall information covered in the novel was vast. …show more content…
The reason Semmelweis is the unknown founder of the cure for childbed fever is because he never concretely published or shared his findings. Thankfully, Nuland has taken the time to compile all of this information to share Semmelweis’ story. Admittedly, before reading this book, I had never heard of childbed fever or Semmelweis. With today’s advances in medicine, there was never a need to know. Nevertheless, by taking the steps to publish the story of the life of Semmelweis’ and his important findings, Nuland broke new ground. Nuland was the first to put two and two together to inform the medical and historical fields of this great mans discovery. By writing the Doctors’ Plague, Nuland finally can give Semmelweis the recognition he so thouroughly deserves. Additionally, the credibility of the author and sources is important when considering the Doctors’ Plague as a book choice. Nuland is very qualified himself, being a surgeon, a professor of medicine, a professor of history of medicine and an author. Just as Nuland is credible, so is the information in the Doctor’s Plauge. In the chapters where Nuland references other peoples findings when giving background information about childbed fever, Nuland makes sure to give them credit. Moreover, his use of selected quotes helps to tie all of the information together that make the novel the gem it …show more content…
One weakness can be found with the way the information flowed together, sometimes making the text either difficult to follow, or in the second and third chapters, quite dry. Also, in my edition of the book, one of the few pictures Nuland decided to add to supplement his writing was a complete waste of space. The pictures were supposed to show the differences between Ingác Semmelweis over a span of a few years, but the reader can’t even see any differences because the printing quality was absolutely terrible. Still, the overall strengths of the book overrule the few flaws mentiones. The Doctors’ Plague was a meaningful book to read because of the information provided, its ability to break new ground, and the credibility of its author and evidence. Overall, there were more strengths than weaknesses, and this served to cement new knowledge into the reader’s heads. I would recommend this book to anyone in the medical field, as well as for anyone who likes
Since William H. McNeill organized Plagues and Peoples chronologically, it became clear that his research involved layering timelines between major events and epidemics. Obviously, McNeill focused on migration patterns and the encounters different cultures had from different climates as well as possible animal encounters. Virgin populations became key groups susceptible to plagues as their bodies were not accustomed to foreign contaminants and biological warfare. McNeill used scientific and medical knowledge of the twentieth century to support the majority of his
The Eleventh Plague is one of those books you MUST finish in 4 days or less because the story sticks like glue to your mind and you won’t stop theory-crafting until you give in and read it to the end these are reasons why. Eleventh Plague has a well-written plot which is essential to any story and it is back up by the fascinating character development and detailed writing. Eleventh Plague has a great plot. At the start, it shows Stephen and his Father trekking along an abandoned road when suddenly, they spot a Canadian military airplane. It then leads on to show the two of them living in the plane for a few days until a group of slavers also find this plane. Stephens father has a fight with the slavers
The book jumps to a distressing story about Peter Los in 1970 in West Germany who became ill due to smallpox. After ten days he was hospitalized but medical staff did not realize he had smallpox, which is highly contagious. Preston gives vivid descriptions of the disease and how it ravages the body. Los survived his illness, but caused an epidemic that killed many others that had become exposed to him. “Today, the people who plan for a smallpox emergency can’t get the image of the Meschede hospital out of their minds.
... same time a weakness for an advanced reader who is wanting to expand their knowledge of the subject. While it may be a fun book to read I find it unlikely that any future historian would be likely to use it as a reliable source due to its subjectivity and conjecture and the interpreation of a third or fourth generation interpretation make its usefulness questionable.
Murphy, Jim. An American Plague: the True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793. New York, NY: Clarion Books, 2003. Print.
One weakness is that much of the information included is not in chronological order. This makes it difficult for the reader to understand in which order these events had occurred. Flipping back and forth between pages is sometimes needed, as well as making a timeline of your own. While Kusmer did have a rhyme or reason as to why he had written the book how he did, a way to solve this issue would have been to simply write the book in chronological order. Another weakness is that sometimes the book is quite dry. It is an interesting read, however at times it is more like reading a history book:
The Black Death is one of the deadliest epidemics to ever hit mankind. It is estimated that this epidemic killed nearly 30%-60% of the population depending on the location. Recently, scholars have argued over the existence of the Black Death as a Plague in the form of Yersinia Pestis. Many argue, through scientific research and primary sources, that the Black Death was indeed a plague. Their critics argue that there is not enough evidence in the correlation of the scientific research and the primary sources to conclude that the Black Death was really a plague. The primary source The Black Death, by Rosemary Horrox, is a compilation of different accounts of the plague throughout Europe in the 1300’s. The two modern sources Plague Historians
Lapaire, Pierre J. "The Plague: Overview." Reference Guide to World Literature. Ed. Lesley Henderson. 2nd ed. New York: St. James Press, 1995. Literature Resource Center. Web. 24 Mar. 2011.
McNeil WH. Plagues and peoples: a natural history of infectious diseases. New York: Anchor Press,1976.
Think of a North America without electricity, no running water, no government, almost no buildings left intact, and ravaged by a Chinese manufactured plague, even though it’s hard to imagine that's what happened in Jeff Hirsch’s The Eleventh Plague. In Jeff Hirsch’s Eleventh Plague a family made up of the Dad, Mom, Grandfather, and son are trying to survive in a North America ravaged by a Chinese Plague , But then the mom and grandpa die and dad and Stephen are left on their own, but when the dad gets injured running away from some slavers, A Town named Settlers Landing that seems too good to be true takes them in. Then Stephen befriends a girl named Jenny, and when they play a prank that sends Jenny, and when they play a prank that sends the town into chaos. A war is started and it is up to them to help stop it. I thought that The Eleventh Plague was a believable piece of Speculative Fiction because of Hirsch's use of elements of Conflict, Theme, and Red Herrings.
Murphy, Jim. An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic 1793. New York, New York: Clariton Book, 2003. Print.
...rmacology became a practice, and medical experimentation common. As inspired by the printing press, medical books began being written. The years after the plague made way for modern medicine.
Christopher Hamlin, “Edwin Chadwick, ‘Mutton Medicine’, and the Fever Question,” Bulletin of the History of Medicine 70 (1996): 233-265.
Albert Camus was a French writer who was very well known all over the world for his different works but especially with the idea of “absurdism”. Camus believed that something that was absurd was not possible by humans or logically. It was beyond ridiculous and therefore impossible. This was the basis of one of his most famous works, The Plague. The Plague is a novel that explores aspects of human nature and condition, destiny, God, and fate. The novel is about a plague that takes place in Oran, Algeria that is fictional, but it’s believed to be relatively based on a cholera outbreak in the mid 1800’s in Oran that killed thousands of people. Dr. Bernard Rieux is the protagonist but also is the narrator. However, he doesn’t admit to being the narrator until the end of the novel. Camus writes in the beginning that the instances in Oran are being told by witnesses of the plague. In The Plague, Camus wants his audience to read the book unbiasedly not knowing the narrator in order to take sides with the characters that one wants to and not to be persuaded by the narrators telling of the events.
Handwashing with soap and water has been an integral part of religious and cultural habits for centuries. The correlation between handwashing and the spread of disease was established in the 1800s. Handwashing is successful in preventing the spread of infection and this theory was proven by Ignaz Semmelweis in a maternity ward in Austria in 1847. Despite solid evidence, his theory was met with great opposition. He found that handwashing greatly reduced the incidence and spread of Child Bed Fever aka Perpetual Fever. He noticed that after medical students had been in the autopsy suites their hands would still smell strongly after