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Presents twelve stories of the men who pioneered the study of bacteriology.

Paul de Kruif's Microbe Hunters is a timeless dramatization of the scientists, bacteriologists, doctors, and medical technicians who discovered microbes and invented the vaccines to counter them. De Kruif reveals the now seemingly simple but really fundamental discoveries of science - for instance, how a microbe was first viewed in a clear drop of rain water, and when, for the first time ever, Louis Pasteur discovered that a simple vaccine could save a man from the ravages of rabies by attacking the microbes that cause it.

Paul de Kruif is known for his controversial opinions on modern medicine. Our Medicine Men highlights the scientist's disputable account of the medical profession. Our Medicine Men presents Paul de Kruif's controversial modern medicine opinions. The collected essays were first published in The Century Magazine, which resulted in many medical and scientific professionals criticising Kruif's work for providing 'detrimental' false information. ""A devastating attack upon the pomposities, absurdities and dangerous practices in the medical profession"" - Publishers Weekly, 1922 This volume features the following chapters: - 'The Dignity of the Medical Profession' - 'The Role of Credulity' - 'On a Misconception of the Role of Physicians - 'The Cure of Disease' - 'Pills Make Way for Prevention' - 'Religio Sanitatis' - 'The Molding of the Raw Material' - 'The Science of the Study of Disease' - 'The Master Physician and the Anti-Physician' First published in 1922, Our Medicine Men is not to be missed by collectors of Paul de Kruif's work and those interested in the history of medicine.

From Hearst's International and, fortunately for posterity, the gist of Paul H. De Kruif's monumental work has been preserved in book form, Our Medicine Men which is a series of brilliant essays, and his name will be venerated by future generations. We can only comment briefly upon the scholarly works of De Kruif. How it was possible for one man in a single lifetime to marshal the vast amount of material he presents is beyond comprehension. He takes up the study of medical practice from antiquity until the present day. His only desire is "to inquire into the causes for its present extraordinary magnificence and prosperity, and to discover, if possible, whether these are due to a commensurate increase in the value of its service." He shows that feeble attacks have been made against medicine by Butler, Moliere, Da Vinci, and Shaw; but these failed. But he will succeed. Paracelsus, Galen, and a host of other fathers of medicine are portrayed in all their ignominy. The rank and file of medical men today are no better than those who followed Galen; therefore quackery and fakery abound. (Any student of logic will be able to explain this to the ordinary, illiterate physician.) De Kruif has gone through all there is in medicine with judicious wisdom, separating the good from the bad and throwing most of it into limbo. Little is left. Vaccines, group medicine, psychoanalysis, specialists, medical colleges, these and many others are dissected without mercy, and we are shown with startling clarity that it is all a sham and worthless, utterly worthless. Gone, forever gone, are the days of the good old family doctor. Here we find the only note which approaches any pity for the heartless tribe of medical men. It is high time this group of rascals were exposed, vendors of nostrums, fee splitters. cunning aids of heartless drug houses, pretending to cure while injecting vaccines and gloating over the bodies of their slain victims, not forgetting to send bills for fabulous sums to the relatives of the departed. Could a more heartbreaking picture be painted? Could anything be so monstrous?.... -International Record of Medicine and General Practice Clinics

This pop-science volume is Paul de Kruif’s classic account of microscopic discoveries, and it presents a history of the most important figures in medicine. Microbe Hunters is separated into 14 stories of pioneering scientists, including Antonie van Leeuwenhoek (1632​​–1723) and Louis Pasteur (1822​​–1895). The dramatised records of important scientific figures and the history of medicine are written in simple, accessible language. Becoming an international bestseller, the volume was translated into 18 languages and adapted for the stage and screen. This volume features the following chapters: - ‘Leeuwenhoek: First of the Microbe Hunters’ - ‘Spallanzani: Microbes Must Have Parents!’ - ‘Pasteur: Microbes Are a Menace!’ - ‘Koch: The Death Fighter’ - ‘Pasteur: And the Mad Dog’ - ‘Roux and Behring: Massacre the Guinea-Pigs’ - ‘Metchnikoff: The Nice Phagocytes’ - ‘Theobald Smith: Ticks and Texas Fever’ First published in 1926, Microbe Hunters remains one of the most encompassing classic accounts of microbiology history and is not to be missed by those who wish to extend their scientific knowledge.

Meet the man against insanity. His laboratory? The sadly sinister wards of the 3,000-bed Traverse City State Hospital. His apparatus? Only his own eyes and hands, plus the hands and eyes of more than one hundred nurse attendants. And for his experiments, the patients whom staff referred to as the "cats and dogs"- the seemingly incurable psychotics resistant to all treatment and far beyond hope."Maybe we're not scientific here," Ferguson admitted. "I know we're different than they are in the big medical schools. We don't treat diseases - we try to treat sick people."In this book, originally published in 1957, author Paul de Kruif tells the story of Dr. Jack Ferguson, a family physician who originally made a name for himself by perfecting a three-minute lobotomy. In 1954, he arrived in Traverse City, Michigan, ready to perform 500 lobotomies on the so-called incurably insane. Yet he never got around to even the first one. Instead, using an unscientific combination of chemicals, copious notes and loving attention, he began one of the boldest drug therapy experiments ever attempted in a mental institution, helping to reshape how the mentally ill are treated in this country and abroad.

Presents twelve stories of the men who pioneered the study of bacteriology.

Presents twelve stories of the men who pioneered the study of bacteriology.