The Medical Detectives

The Classic Collection of Award-Winning Medical Investigative Reporting

Look inside
$19.00 US
Penguin Adult HC/TR | Plume
28 per carton
On sale Mar 30, 1991 | 9780452265882
Sales rights: US, Canada, Open Mkt
The classic collection of award-winning medical investigative reporting.

What do Lyme’s disease in Long Island, a pig from New Jersey, and am amateur pianist have in common? All are subjects in three of 24 utterly fascinating tales of strange illnesses, rare diseases, poisons, and parasites—each tale a thriller of medical suspense by the incomparable Berton Roueché. The best of his New Yorker articles are collected here to astound readers with intriguing tales of epidemics in America’s small towns, threats of contagion in our biggest cities, even bubonic plague in a peaceful urban park.
 
In each true story, local health authorities and epidemiologists race against time to find the clue to an unknown and possibly fatal disease. Sometimes a life hangs in the balance, and the culprit may be as innocuous as a bowl of oatmeal. Award-winning journalist Berton Roueché is unfailingly exact, informative, and able to keep anyone reading till dawn.
The Medical Detectives1. Eleven BLue Men

2. A Pig from Jersey

3. A Game of WIld Indians

4. The Incurable Wound

5. CH3 CO2 C6 H4 CO2 H (Aspirin)

6. The Liberace Room

7. Impression: Essentially Normal

8. A Swim in the Nile

9. The Orange Man

10. The Dead Mosquitos

11. Something a Little Unusual

12. A Man Named Hoffman

13. Three SIck Babies

14. The West Branch Studies

15. The Huckleby Hogs

16. All I COuld Do Was Stand in the Woods

17. As Empty as Eve

18. Two Blue Hands

19. Antipathies

20. Sandies

21. A Rainy Day on the Vineyard

22. Live and Let Live

23. The Fumigation Chamber

24. A Lean Cuisine

25. The FOulest and Nastiest Creatures That Be
Index

“Berton Roueché’s ‘Annals of Medicine’ pieces enriched us for well over a quarter of a century. They have become classics in a genre he himself created single-handedly.”—The American Academy and Institute of Arts & Letters

“Roueché’s writings have become unofficial textbooks for medical students, interns, practitioners, scientists, and for that matter anyone interested in human illness. They are engrossing, instructive, accurate, and marvelous fun to read, and the present collection represents Roueché at his best.”—Lewis Thomas, MD, author of The Lives of a Cell and The Medusa and the Snail

About

The classic collection of award-winning medical investigative reporting.

What do Lyme’s disease in Long Island, a pig from New Jersey, and am amateur pianist have in common? All are subjects in three of 24 utterly fascinating tales of strange illnesses, rare diseases, poisons, and parasites—each tale a thriller of medical suspense by the incomparable Berton Roueché. The best of his New Yorker articles are collected here to astound readers with intriguing tales of epidemics in America’s small towns, threats of contagion in our biggest cities, even bubonic plague in a peaceful urban park.
 
In each true story, local health authorities and epidemiologists race against time to find the clue to an unknown and possibly fatal disease. Sometimes a life hangs in the balance, and the culprit may be as innocuous as a bowl of oatmeal. Award-winning journalist Berton Roueché is unfailingly exact, informative, and able to keep anyone reading till dawn.

Table of Contents

The Medical Detectives1. Eleven BLue Men

2. A Pig from Jersey

3. A Game of WIld Indians

4. The Incurable Wound

5. CH3 CO2 C6 H4 CO2 H (Aspirin)

6. The Liberace Room

7. Impression: Essentially Normal

8. A Swim in the Nile

9. The Orange Man

10. The Dead Mosquitos

11. Something a Little Unusual

12. A Man Named Hoffman

13. Three SIck Babies

14. The West Branch Studies

15. The Huckleby Hogs

16. All I COuld Do Was Stand in the Woods

17. As Empty as Eve

18. Two Blue Hands

19. Antipathies

20. Sandies

21. A Rainy Day on the Vineyard

22. Live and Let Live

23. The Fumigation Chamber

24. A Lean Cuisine

25. The FOulest and Nastiest Creatures That Be
Index

Praise

“Berton Roueché’s ‘Annals of Medicine’ pieces enriched us for well over a quarter of a century. They have become classics in a genre he himself created single-handedly.”—The American Academy and Institute of Arts & Letters

“Roueché’s writings have become unofficial textbooks for medical students, interns, practitioners, scientists, and for that matter anyone interested in human illness. They are engrossing, instructive, accurate, and marvelous fun to read, and the present collection represents Roueché at his best.”—Lewis Thomas, MD, author of The Lives of a Cell and The Medusa and the Snail