1 option
Mirage of health : utopias, progress and biological change / by René Dubos.
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Dubos, René J. (René Jules), 1901-1982.
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Social medicine.
- Adaptation (Physiology).
- Human ecology.
- Adaptation, Biological.
- Disease--etiology.
- Health.
- Social Adjustment.
- Medical Subjects:
- Adaptation, Biological.
- Disease--etiology.
- Health.
- Social Adjustment.
- Physical Description:
- vii, 282 pages ; 21 cm
- Place of Publication:
- New Brunswick : Rutgers University Press, 1987.
- Summary:
- 'Complete freedom from disease and from struggle is almost incompatible with the process of living, ' Rene Dubos asserted in this classic essay on ecology and health. All the accomplishments of science and technology, he argued, will not bring the utopian dream of universal well-being, because they ignore the dynamic process of adaptation to a constantly changing environment that every living organism must face. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
- Contents:
- I. The Gardens of Eden 1
- The Golden Ages
- The Return to Nature
- Health through Science
- Health as Adaptation
- II. Biological and Social Adaptation 30
- The Haunts of Life
- Biological Adaptations in Man
- Adaptation through Instinctive Patterns of Behavior
- Adaptation through Social Mechanisms
- Unstability of Ecological Systems
- Social Determinants of Human Fitness
- III. Struggle and Partnership in the Living World 62
- The Struggle for Existence
- Man and the World of Microbes
- Infection versus Disease
- Adaptive Mechanisms of Resistance to Infection
- Symbiosis and Parasitism
- IV. Environment and Disease 95
- The Weather, the Potato Blight, and the Destiny of the Irish
- The Doctrine of Specific Etiology
- Direct and Indirect Effects of the External Environment
- The Internal Environment
- Interplays between the External and the Internal Environment
- The Past as Factor of the Environment
- V. Hygeia and Asclepius 129
- Gods of Health
- Hippocratic Wisdom and the Goldheaded Cane
- The Philosopher's Search for Health
- The Magic Bullets of Medicine
- Drugs and the Conquest of Disease
- Orthobiosis
- VI. Social Patterns of Health and of Disease 170
- The History of Diseases
- Hunger and Surfeit
- The Diseases of Pestilence and of Sanitation
- Modern Horsemen of the Apocalypse
- From Madness to Boredom
- Medicine and Society
- VII. Effects of Disease on Populations and on Civilization 220
- Food, Disease, and Population Trends
- Effects of Disease and Nutrition on Military and Political History
- Disease and Social Evolution
- Effects of Disease on Cultural Forces
- VIII. Utopias and Human Goals 258
- Arcadias and Utopias
- From Biological Adaptation to Social Evolution
- Social Changes and Ecological Equilibria
- Health, Happiness, and Human Values
- Envoi.
- Notes:
- Reprint. Originally published: New York : Harper, 1959.
- ISBN:
- 081351259X :
- 0813512603
- OCLC:
- 15520657
The Penn Libraries is committed to describing library materials using current, accurate, and responsible language. If you discover outdated or inaccurate language, please fill out this feedback form to report it and suggest alternative language.