Medical Heroes and Heretics

Download or read book Medical Heroes and Heretics written by Wayne Martin and published by Devin-Adair Publishers. This book was released on 1977 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Orthodox science -- particularly in the medical profession -- has for centuries resisted change. It traces back at least as far as Socrates who was done to death for corrupting youth with his innovative ideas. In recent times, practically all the great advances in medicine have been made against a powerfully entrenched orthodoxy. Wayne Martin's book is about some of the men involved -- then and now: Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., who made physicians wash their hands; Louis Pasteur, who postulated the connection between bacteria and certain diseases; Frederick Banting, who discovered insulin; Jonas Salk, who solved the mystery of polio, to mention but a few. These men all braved the wrath of the medical establishment of their day. Heretics they were, but Heroes they became. Similarly, today a group of brave pioneers are fighting the same fight. They are, says the author, the heroes of tomorrow: Ernst Krebs, Jr., Evan Shute, Dean Burk, Denis Burkitt, Virginia Livingston and a dozen others, all of whose careers and findings are described here by a man who has pursued his topic for the past ten years.