The white plague : tuberculosis, man, and society / René and Jean Dubos ; foreword by David Mechanic ; introductory essay by Barbara Gutmann Rosenkrantz.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Dubos, René J. (René Jules), 1901-1982.

Contributor:

Dubos, Jean, 1918-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Tuberculosis--History.

Tuberculosis.

History.

Tuberculosis--Social aspects.

Medical Subjects:

Tuberculosis.

Physical Description:

xxxviii, 277 pages : illustrations ; 21 cm

Place of Publication:

New Brunswick : Rutgers University Press, [1987]

Summary:

In The White Plague, Rene and Jean Dubos argue that the great increase of tuberculosis was intimately connected with the rise of an industrial, urbanized society and -- a much more controversial idea when this book first appeared forty years ago -- that the progress of medical science had very little to do with the marked decline in tuberculosis in the twentieth century.

The White Plague has long been regarded as a classic in the social and environmental history of disease. This reprint of the 1952 edition features new introductory writings by two distinguished practitioners of the sociology and history of medicine. David Mechanic's foreword describes the personal and intellectual experience that shaped Rene Dubos's view of tuberculosis. Barbara Gutmann Rosenkrantz's historical introduction reexamines The White Plague in light of recent work on the social history of tuberculosis.

Contents:

Introductory Essay: Dubos and Tuberculosis, Master Teachers / Barbara Gutmann Rosenkrantz xiii

To Our Sources xxxv

Part 1 The White Plague in the Nineteenth Century

I The Captain of All the Men of Death 3

II Death Warrant for Keats 11

III Flight from the North Winds 18

IV Contagion and Heredity 28

V Consumption and the Romantic Age 44

Part 2 The Causes of Tuberculosis

VI Phthisis, Consumption and Tubercles 69

VII Percussion, Auscultation and the Unitarian Theory of Phthisis 77

VIII The Germ Theory of Tuberculosis 94

IX Infection and Disease 111

Part 3 Cure and Prevention of Tuberculosis

X The Evaluation of Therapeutic Procedures 131

XI Treatment and Natural Resistance 139

XII Drugs, Vaccines and Public Health Measures 154

XIII Healthy Living and Sanatoria 173

Part 4 Tuberculosis and Society

XIV The Evolution of Epidemics 185

XV Tuberculosis and Industrial Civilization 197

XVI Tuberculosis and Social Technology 208.

Notes:

Reprint. Originally published: Boston : Little, Brown, 1952; with new introd.

Includes index.

Bibliography: pages [241]-269.

ISBN:

0813512247

0813512239

OCLC:

14188982