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In Print Jonathan
B. Tucker '75 Ever since Robert Stevens died in early October from the inhaled form of anthrax, the nation has had to contend with the chilling reality of bioterrorism. But this dreaded disease is hardly the only weapon in the terrorist arsenal, and in a perhaps prescient book, Jonathan Tucker, an expert in biological warfare, presents the story of humankind's "greatest scourge" -- smallpox. First mentioned in Egyptian writings around 3700 BCE, the virus-caused ailment, which is often fatal, "had a major impact on the history of the ancient world," says Tucker, noting that when it found its way to the New World, the effect on a native population that had never known the disease was especially deadly. "Smallpox was a democratic scourge, afflicting people of every race, class, and social position." But in about 1000 BCE in India, someone, after observing that people who survived smallpox acquired permanent immunity to it, attempted to prevent the disease by deliberately inoculating volunteers with material gleaned from the pustules that characterized the ailment. This risky procedure, known as variolation, would eventually be practiced in many parts of the world, and an experiment to improve it led Edward Jenner to develop a safer, more effective vaccine in the late 1700s. Tucker's account of the history of vaccination and how the vaccine, in the days before refrigeration, was kept viable by transferring it arm-to-arm, is fascinating reading. The story of the concerted effort by the World Health Organization to eradicate smallpox from the planet -- the disease was officially declared conquered in 1980 -- is often cited as one of the greatest achievements of public health. But there is a dark side to the tale. In the 1760s the British used smallpox against American Indians, giving them infected blankets and triggering a deliberate epidemic. Many experts consider the virus to be too dangerous to deploy on the battlefield, but Tucker reveals the extent to which scientists in the then-Soviet Union developed it into the ultimate doomsday weapon. Researchers
and diplomats are currently debating the wisdom of destroying the
last-known stocks of the virus in U.S. and Russian repositories,
even as recent events have prompted officials here to consider a
new effort to vaccinate a population whose immunity to the disease
has vanished. "The risk of a deliberate reintroduction of smallpox
remains quite low," notes Tucker, "but it is not zero."
Joanne
B. Freeman, Assistant Professor of History The rough-and-tumble events that dogged Bill Clinton during his terms in office had many observers bemoaning the fact that politics had become a contact sport. But as historian Joanne Freeman points out in this revealing look at the way the game was played in the early days of the United States, politics was never genteel. As an example, she recounts a mob scene in New York City on July 18, 1795 when citizens protesting a treaty between Great Britain and the U.S. so angered Alexander Hamilton, who had already been hit in the head with a rock, that he issued challenges to two rivals to meet for duels. "Hissings, coughings, hootings, strong words, clenched fists, and the threat of gunplay: this story displays America's founders as real people caught up in the heat of the moment on a summer afternoon," she says. Freeman has mined archival material to piece together the role of a code of honor that often drove politics and political leaders. "I discovered what I came to call the 'ouch factor': the wake of pain and outrage provoked by the passage of political gossip," she says. "Follow the path of outrage, and you reconstruct national networks of political friends and enemies." The
war of words, both spoken and issued through broadsides, could escalate
into a duel with pistols -- a challenge that cost Hamilton his
life at the hands of Aaron Burr. The fact that Clinton and Ken Starr
did not take up arms shows that the political landscape has changed
a bit.
Andrew
Solomon '85 Everyone gets the blues at one time or another, but according to modern researchers, about 19 million Americans suffer from chronic depression. This serious mental illness, says the author, "can be described as emotional pain that forces itself on us against our will, and then breaks free of its externals. a tumbleweed distress that thrives on thin air, growing despite its detachment from the nourishing earth." Solomon uses his successful battle with "the noonday demon" -- the Psalmist's term for melancholia -- as the starting point for a comprehensive exploration of the origin, treatment, history, sociology, politics, and evolution of depression. The book profiles sufferers around the world and examines the many treatments that have been developed, from the admonition of Hippocrates to take mandrake to deal with an excess of black bile to today's electroconvulsive, drug, and talking therapies. "We do not really know what causes depression," says Solomon. "We do not really know why certain treatments may be effective for depression." It
has clearly been part of the human condition for a long time and,
argues Solomon, it will continue to haunt our species for the foreseeable
future. "Depression is the flaw in love," he says. "To
be creatures who love, we must be creatures who can despair at what
we lose, and depression is the mechanism of that despair."
There may be no cure, but fortunately, these days, there's hope,
or, at least, Prozac.
Peter
Gay, Sterling Professor Emeritus
of History Frederic
Lawrence Holmes, Avalon Professor of the History of Medicine Adam
Lewis '72MFA Eric
L. Muller '87JD Richard
S. Tedlow '69 Harry
Toland '44
Elizabeth
Ballantine 1971, 1986PhD, and Stephen S. Lash 1962 Harold
Bloom 1956PhD, Sterling Professor
of the Humanities, Editor Paul
F. Boller Jr. 1939 Gerald
Cohen 1982 Frederick
Crews 1955 Peter
D'Epiro 1981PhD and Mary Desmond Pinkowish 1982MPH Roger
Ferlo 1979PhD Rena
Fraden 1977, 1983PhD Jessica
Helfand 1982, 1989MFA Clarence
Hotchkiss 1950 R.
S. Howe Jr. 1950 John
Klein 1975 William
L. Krinsky 1967, Associate Clinical Professor of Epidemiology and
Public Health, and Michael K. Oliver 1984PhD James
N. McCutcheon 1950 James
Meyer 1984 Char
Miller Keith
Steiner 1950 Shelby
Tucker 1957 Jeff
Wheelwright 1969 William
Wroth 1960, Editor |
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Yale
Alumni Magazine, PO Box 1905, New Haven, CT 06509-1905. USA.
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