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Great Feuds in Medicine
Hal Hellman
Ten of the Liveliest Disputes Ever
Wiley
February 2002
On Sale: February 10, 2002
256 pages
ISBN: 0471208337
EAN: 9780471208334
Paperback
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Non-Fiction
The history of medicine is fraught with controversy. From
Sigmund Freud to Louis Pasteur, countless researchers,
physicians, and scientists have found themselves–and their
work–at the center of ruthless disputes that have destroyed
careers and lives. In this captivating follow-up to his
acclaimed Great Feuds in Science, Hal Hellman tells the
entertaining stories of the most heated and important of
these disputes. Highlighting both famous and lesser-known clashes, Hellman
offers a unique look at medical history. We learn about
Ignaz Semmelweis, a Viennese doctor who in the mid-1800s
argued that obstetricians should wash their hands before
delivering babies and, after being dismissed from his job
and ostracized by his community, eventually landed in a
mental hospital.We encounter Claude Bernard, a 19th-century
physiologist who worked under constant accusations by
antivivisectionists that his experiments on animals were a
crime against nature and society. He was eventually disowned
by his parents. Hellman also reviews the beneficial effects of scientific
controversy. We learn how Louis Pasteur, thriving in the
midst of the many battles he faced, came up with even more
significant advances as a result of his trouble. We see
Luigi Galvani and Alessandro Volta, debaters of "animal
electricity," slugging it out–and egging each other
on–acrosss 18th-century Europe. We witness the discovery of
DNA and the war over the discovery of the AIDS virus, HIV. By shedding light on these feuds, Hellman reveals how our
lives might have been different had these medical
discoveries–and the disputes that followed–never occurred.
From William Harvey’s 17th-century battle with the medical
establishment over his discovery that blood circulates and
Jonas Salk’s legendary fight with Albert Sabin over polio
vaccinations (a fight Salk ultimately lost) to the nasty
recent dispute between American Robert Gallo and French
researcher Luc Montagnier over who first discovered HIV,
this eye-opening book conveys how the high-stakes battle
between ideas and ambition, evidence and ego, characterizes
medical advancement. Ultimately, Great Feuds in Medicine
reveals that quarrels are not only typical of, but often
necessary to, the progress of medicine.
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