Cholera, Chloroform and the Science of Medicine: A Life of John Snow

Cholera, Chloroform and the Science of Medicine: A Life of John Snow
by Peter Vinten-Johansen (Author), Howard Brody (Author), Nigel Paneth (Author), Stephen Rachman (Author), Michael Russell Rip (Author)

Product Details:
* Hardcover: 454 pages
* Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (April 23, 2003)
* Language: English
* ISBN-10: 019513544X

Book Description:

The product of six years of collaborative research, this fine biography offers new interpretations of a pioneering figure in anesthesiology, epidemiology, medical cartography, and public health. It modifies the conventional rags to riches portrait of John Snow by synthesizing fresh information about his early life from archival research and recent studies. It explores the intellectual roots of his commitments to vegetarianism, temperance, and pure drinking water, first developed when he was a medical apprentice and assistant in the north of England. The authors argue that all of Snow's later contributions are traceable to the medical paradigm he imbibed as a medical student in London and put into practice early in his career as a clinician: that medicine as a science required the incorporation of recent developments in its collateral sciences--chiefly anatomy, chemistry, and physiology--in order to understand the causes of disease. Snow's theoretical breakthroughs in anesthesia were extensions of his experimental research in respiratory physiology and the properties of inhaled gases. Shortly thereafter, his understanding of gas laws led him to reject miasmatic explanations for the spread of cholera, and to develop an alternative theory in consonance with what was then known about chemistry and the physiology of digestion. Using all of Snow's writings, the authors follow him when working in his home laboratory, visiting patients throughout London, attending medical society meetings, and conducting studies during the cholera epidemics of 1849 and 1854. The result is a book that demythologizes some overly heroic views of Snow by providing a fairer measure of his actual contributions. It will have an impact not only on the understanding of the man but also on the history of epidemiology and medical science.

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Dendritic Neurotransmitter Release

Dendritic Neurotransmitter Release
by Mike Ludwig (Editor)

Product Details:
* Hardcover: 334 pages
* Publisher: Springer; 1 edition (December 8, 2004)
* Language: English
* ISBN-10: 0387229337

Book Description
This text will highlight the mechanisms and consequences of dendritic transmitter release, with an emphasis on the mechanisms that generate such processing and how these can induce state-dependent plasticity in the processing. This volume will be out of broad significance, expanding the understanding of the spectrum of dendritic mechanisms for neural processing. It will demonstrate that dendritic release that likely occurs throughout the brain is a key feature in the control of information transfer in neural networks, through cross-talk and autorcontrol by paracine/autocrine mechanisms

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