ENGLISH

Ten Drugs: How Plants, Powders, and Pills Have Shaped the History of Medicine

Book information

Publisher
Abrams Press
Year
2019
ISBN
1419734407, 9781419734403
Language
english
Format
EPUB
Filesize
4 MB (4105570 bytes)
Pages
304\0
Topic
History
Time added
2019-03-05 09:23:04

Description

Behind every landmark drug is a story. It could be an oddball researcher’s genius insight, a catalyzing moment in geopolitical history, a new breakthrough technology, or an unexpected but welcome side effect discovered during clinical trials. Piece together these stories, as Thomas Hager does in this remarkable, century-spanning history, and you can trace the evolution of our culture and the practice of medicine.  ​Beginning with opium, the “joy plant,” which has been used for 10,000 years, Hager tells a captivating story of medicine. His subjects include the largely forgotten female pioneer who introduced smallpox inoculation to Britain, the infamous knockout drops, the first antibiotic, which saved countless lives, the first antipsychotic, which helped empty public mental hospitals, Viagra, statins, and the new frontier of monoclonal antibodies. This is a deep, wide-ranging, and wildly entertaining book.

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