2023-07-24 08:07:14
Our life as we know it would be impossible without the advances in medicine, whose influence on our existence is total.
The German physician and historian Ronald D. Gerste tells us regarding this in his most recent book, who takes us into one of the most crucial periods in the history of medicine, revealing the scientific advances and ethical challenges that marked an era of innovation and discovery.
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In the pages of Healing the World: The Golden Age of Medicine, Gerste reviews the events of the years 1840 to 1914, when medicine had not yet reached the sophistication and scope that we know it today. The author transports us to a society in full swing, where doctors and scientists of different nationalities deployed their knowledge and efforts for the sake of public health.
The book compiles the testimonies of these outstanding pioneers, who left an invaluable legacy in the field of medicine. From the consolidation of anesthesia and Louis Pasteur’s revolutionary theory of germs and disease, to advances in the treatment of tuberculosis and syphilis.
In this age of innovative and heretical ideas, science and knowledge flourished, and great minds like John Snow, Florence Nightingale, Sigmund Freud, and Robert Koch left an indelible mark on medical diagnosis and treatment.
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The work is not only an encounter with these pioneers of medicine, but also a journey into a period of radical change. The advent of the railway and the steamship opened up the frontiers of the horizon, globalizing the world like never before. Humanity has ventured beyond its limits, and science has led the way to a future full of possibilities.
However, the brilliance of these impressive innovations was abruptly cut short by two catastrophic events. World War I, with its devastating charge, destroyed lives and progress, casting a shadow over the era of triumph that had preceded. But the tragedy did not end there. A terrible pandemic, the Spanish flu, struck humanity, leaving a tragic epilogue to a story that seemed destined for endless prosperity.
Today, as we face new challenges, it is imperative to look back and understand how the great deeds of that period shaped our present. The lessons learned from that era of optimism and the fight once morest disease will resonate forever in our society.
An interesting aspect that stands out in these pages is how the relationship between medicine and ethics is explored. Gerste raises interesting questions regarding the responsible use of certain substances and therapies. Likewise, he addresses the episode in which Freud and Koller experimented with cocaine, a substance that at the time was considered a powerful analgesic and stimulant.
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The book not only focuses on the great medical discoveries, but also highlights the importance of public health and improvements in hygiene, which contributed to the reduction of infectious diseases and a longer life expectancy for the population.
The research work behind it is extensive and detailed, and is backed by an extensive bibliography that can help us delve into certain topics.
Heal the World: The Golden Age of Medicine is a book aimed at all audiences. Gerste’s pen is simple and engaging, and through his words he not only seeks to satisfy historical curiosity, but also invites us to reflect on the evolution of medicine and how the achievements of the past have laid the foundations for modern medicine.
Despite the adversities, humanity persists in its search for the cure, healing and improvement of life. Perhaps, in the memory of this golden age, we will find the inspiration to face the challenges of the present and build a future where medicine and science continue to guide us towards a better world.
♦ Born in 1957 in Magdeburg, Germany.
♦ He is a doctor and historian.
♦ He works as a science correspondent in Washington, DC and writes for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, and Die Zeit, among other outlets.
None of the many spectators who filled the rows of seats in the theater that morning had serious expectations of witnessing a historic moment or witnessing the premiere of one of the most beneficial inventions to date. The gentlemen -since they were exclusively men, given the prevailing belief in the world of medicine that there was no place for women- wore long frock coats over their white shirt and waistcoat, with the modern stiff collar, they held canes as a sign of status and wore tall top hats on their heads that were removed when entering the auditorium, also so as not to block the view of the show for those behind them.
Doctors from Boston and medical students from nearby Harvard University had gathered once more that Friday morning to watch the great exponent of American surgery, sixty-eight-year-old John Collins Warren, perform one of his public operations for experts for educational purposes, perhaps also seeking that voyeuristic horror. If the last row of the operating room at Massachusetts General Hospital was filled that day, it was also because a special spectacle was expected: a rumor had spread that the operation would probably be done without the patient feeling pain. However, the prospect of seeing another of the swindling charlatans who plagued medicine at the time, with their miracle cures and oddities, made ridiculous, was frustrated in the following hours in the most pleasant and sensational way.
The letters, mementos and diaries left by the crowd of observers reflected their perplexity and emotion at the spectacle they attended, as well as their gratitude for having witnessed it. Where since time immemorial agony and pain, torment and despair predominated, suddenly silence and hope broke out. It was Friday, October 16, 1846. After that day in Boston, people’s relationships with physical suffering would change forever.
Warren entered the auditorium around ten. Confident to the point of insolence, cold to the point of cynicism, the celebrated surgeon announced in an impassive tone that, indeed, a gentleman had come to him “with the astonishing request to relieve a patient who had to be operated on from pain.” No pain, what audacity! As some other bystander must have done, Henry J. Bigelow, a very bright young Boston doctor who would explain in great detail what happened that morning, let his mind wander through the history of medicine for the last three or four thousand years. The son of a family of physicians, Bigelow was aware that not much had really changed since the first healers (if they deserved the name) in Mesopotamia, Africa, or pre-Columbian America had used a scalpel. All the interventions implied unimaginable pain for the unfortunates who had to undergo them. Since ancient times, doctors had been looking for remedies, they had tried plant extracts and alcohol-soaked sponges, as well as opium and the magnetization method created by the German Franz Anton Mesmer, a kind of suggestion: everything had been in vain. As soon as the surgeon took the first step or the dentist took up the pliers, the screams of the martyred resounded in the infirmaries and hospitals. Pain seemed to be the fateful accompaniment of medical operations.
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