Luba Vikhanski

A gem for the right reader

Dr. Elie Metchnikoff was a remarkable man at a remarkable period of history and Luba Vikhanski has done a good job of telling us his story. The controversy that his immune theory generated at the time is a little hard for us to understand today because we know that in large part his theory is correct. But it is also hard for us to understand that scientists and doctors were only just beginning to think that it might be possible to cure illness instead of just palliate the symptoms.

Years ago I picked up Lewis Thomas's "The Youngest Science: Notes of a Medicine-Watcher" and in it Dr. Thomas, in his excellent prose, explained that until the discovery of sulfur and later penicillin and other antibiotics, the physician's job was to diagnose the illness and tell the patient the prognosis. Dr.Metchnikoff broke new theoretical ground 40 years before penicillin came into general use.

Alas, as informative as this book is, it is not very exciting, and I don't think it will be of much interest to the general reader. But for fans of medical biography, it is a gem.

Based on the ARC I must warn that the editing is weak. The text is too full of flowery turns as if it were written in Russian. The text mistakes typhus for typhoid and the argument about phages could be presented more clearly.

I received a review copy of "Immunity: How Elie Metchnikoff Changed the Course of Modern Medicine" by Luba Vikhanski (Chicago Review) through NetGalley.com.… (mais)