The Rise and Fall of Modern Medicine

by James Le Fanu

  6.Tony Stark, Knife to the Heart.

  7.Alexis Carrel, letter to Theodore Cocher, 9 May 1914, quoted in Theodore Malinin, Surgery and Life: The Extraordinary Career of Alexis Carrel (New York: Harcourt, 1979). See also Note 6.

  8.Joseph E. Murray, ‘Reflections on the First Successful Kidney Transplantation’, World Journal of Surgery, 1982, Vol. 6, pp. 372–6.

  9.Frank Parsons, ‘Origins of Haemodialysis in Great Britain’, BMJ, 1989, Vol. 299, pp. 1557–60.

  10.J. P. Merrill, J. E. Murray et al., ‘Successful Homotransplantation of the Human Kidney Between Identical Twins’, JAMA, 1956, Vol. 160, p. 277.

  11.See Note 8.

  12.Human Kidney Transplant Conference, Transplantation Proceedings, 1964, Vol. 2, pp. 147–65, 581–600.

  13.Willard E. Goodwin et al., ‘Human Renal Transplantation’, Journal of Urology, 1963, Vol. 68, pp. 13–24.

  14.J. H. Burchenal et al., ‘Clinical Evaluation of 6 mercaptopurine in the Treatment of Leukaemia and Other Diseases’, Blood, 1953, Vol. 8, pp. 966–99. See also Gertrude B. Elion, ‘The Purine Path of Chemotherapy’, Science, 7 April 1989, pp. 41–47; George Hitchings, ‘Chemotherapy and Comparative Biochemistry’, Cancer Research, 1969, Vol. 29, pp. 1895–903.

  15.Robert Schwartz and William Dameshek, ‘Drug-induced Immunological Tolerance’, Nature, 1959, Vol. 183, pp. 1682–3. See also Robert Schwartz, ‘Design and Achievement in Chemotherapy’, A Symposium in Honour of George Hitchings (Burroughs-Wellcome, 1976).

  16.See Note 6.

  17.John Hopewell, ‘Witness Seminar on the History of Early Renal Transplantation’, Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine,13 September 1994.

  18.R. Calne, ‘The Rejection of Renal Homografts Inhibition in Dogs by 6 mercaptopurine’, The Lancet, 1960, pp. 417–18.

  19.John Hopewell et al., ‘Three Clinical Cases of Renal Transplantation’, BMJ, 5 November 1964, pp. 411–13.

  20.See Note 12.

  21.Joseph E. Murray et al., ‘The Long Survival of Human/Kidney Homografts by Immunosuppressive Drug Therapy’, NEJM, 1963, Vol. 268, pp. 1315–23.

  22.Thomas E. Starzl, The Puzzle People.

  23.See Note 6.

  24.Thomas E. Starzl, ‘Reversal of Rejection in Human Renal Homografts with Subsequent Development of Homograft Tolerance’, Surgery, Gynaecology and Obstetrics, 1963, Vol. 117, pp. 385–95. (The theoretical potential of steroids as immunosuppressant drugs was first identified by Medawar in 1951. See R. E. Billingham et al., ‘Effect of Locally Applied Cortisone Acetate on Survival of Skin Homografts in Rabbits’, BMJ, 3 November 1951, pp. 1049–53.)

  25.Thomas E. Starzl et al., ‘Long-term (25-year) Survival After Renal Homo-transplantation: The World Experience’, Transplantation Proceedings, 1990, Vol. 22, pp. 2361–5.

  26.J. F. Borel, ‘Effect of the New Anti-lymphocytic Peptide Cyclosporine A in Animals’, Immunology, 1977, Vol. 32, pp. 1017–25.

  9: 1964: The Triumph of Prevention – The Case of Strokes

  GENERAL READING

  William S. Fields and Noreen Lemak, A History of Stroke: Its Recognition and Treatment (Oxford: OUP, 1989).

  Nicholas Postel-Vinay (ed.), A Century of Arterial Hypertension,1896–1996 (Chichester: John Wiley & Sons, 1996).

  REFERENCES

  1.VA Co-operative Study Group, ‘Effects of Treatment on Morbidity in Hypertension’, JAMA, 1967, Vol. 202, pp. 1028–33.

  2.Franz Messerli, ‘This Day Fifty Years Ago’, NEJM, 1995, Vol. 332, pp. 1038–9.

  3.J. Hart, ‘While America Slept’, National Review, 15 September 1989, p. 32.

  4.W. Kempner, ‘Treatment of Hypertensive Vascular Disease with Rice Diet’, AJM, 1948, Vol. 4, pp. 545–77.

  5.G. W. Pickering, High Blood Pressure (Churchill-Livingstone, 1968).

  6.Herbert Chasis, ‘Salt and Protein Restriction: Effects on Blood Pressure’, JAMA, 1950, Vol. 142, p. 711.

  7.R. H. Smithwick, ‘Splanchnicectomy for Essential Hypertension: Results in 1,266 cases’, JAMA, 1953, Vol. 152, pp. 1501–4.

  8.William B. Schwartz, ‘The Effect of Sulfanilamide on Salt and Water Excretion in Congestive Heart Failure’, NEJM, 1949, Vol. 240, p. 173.

  9.Karl H. Beyer, ‘Discovery of the Thiazides: Where Biology and Chemistry Meet’, Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, Spring 1977, pp. 410–20.

  10.Edward D. Freis et al., ‘Treatment of Essential Hypertension with Chlorothiazide’, JAMA, 1958, Vol. 166, pp. 137–41.

  11.Raymond P. Ahlquist, ‘A Study of the Adrenotropic Receptors’, American Journal of Physiology, 1948, Vol. 153, pp. 586–98.

  12.J. W. Black and J. S. Stephenson, ‘Pharmacology of a New Adrenergic Beta-receptor Blocking Compound’, The Lancet, 1962, Vol. 2, pp. 311–15.

  13.B. N. C. Pritchard and P. M. S. Gillam, ‘Treatment of Hypertension with Propranolol’, BMJ, 4 January 1969, pp. 7–15. See also B. N. C. Pritchard, ‘Beta Adrenergic Receptor Blockage in Hypertension: Past, Present and Future’, British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, 1978, Vol. 5, pp. 379–99.

  14.Nicholas Postel-Vinay (ed.), A Century of Arterial Hypertension.

  15.J. D. Swales, Platt Versus Pickering: An Episode of Recent Medical History (Keynes Press, 1985).

  16.Jeremiah Stamler et al., ‘Hypertension Screening of One Million Americans’, JAMA, 1976, Vol. 235, p. 229.

  17.R. Brian Haynes et al., ‘Increased Absenteeism from Work after Detection and Labelling of Hypertensive Patients’, NEJM, 1978, Vol. 229, pp. 741–5.

  18.MRC, ‘Adverse Reactions to Bendrofluazide and Propranolol for the Treatment of Mild Hypertension’, The Lancet, 1981, Vol. 2, pp. 539–43.

  19.MRC, ‘MRC Trial of Mild Hypertension: Principal Results’, BMJ, 1985, Vol. 291, pp. 97–103.

  20.N. M. Kaplan, Clinical Hypertension (Philadelphia, PA: Williams & Wilkins, 1994).

  10: 1971: Curing Childhood Cancer

  GENERAL READING

  J. H. Burchenal, ‘Historic Development of Cancer Chemotherapy’, Seminars in Oncology, 1977, Vol. 4, pp. 135–47.

  A. H. Calvert (ed.), ‘A Critical Assessment of Chemotherapy’, Cancer Surveys, 1989, Vol. 3.

  George J. Hill, ‘Historic Milestones in Cancer Surgery’, Seminars in Oncology, 1979, Vol. 6.

  Henry S. Kaplan, ‘Historic Milestones in Radiobiology’, Seminars in Oncology, 1979, Vol. 6.

  Irwin Krakoff, ‘Progress and Prospects in Cancer Treatment’, Journal of Clinical Oncology, 1994, Vol. 12, pp. 432–8.

  James S. Olson, The History of Cancer: An Annotated Bibliography (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1989).

  Grant Taylor (ed.), Pioneers of Pediatric Oncology (Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 1990).

  Maxwell M. Wintrobe, Haematology: The Blossoming of a Science (Lea & Febiger, 1985).

  C. Gordon Zubrod, ‘Historic Milestones in Curative Chemotherapy’, Seminars in Oncology, 1979, Vol. 6.

  REFERENCES

  1.David Galton, Sir Eric Sharp lecture (unpublished).

  2.R. J. Araur et al., ‘Central Nervous System Therapy and Combination Chemotherapy of Childhood Lymphocytic Leukaemia’, Blood, 1971, Vol. 37, pp. 272–81.

  3.F. N. Hersh, ‘Causes of Death in Acute Leukaemia’, JAMA, 1965, Vol. 193, pp. 99–103. See also Joseph V. Simone, ‘Fatalities During Remission of Childhood Leukaemia’, Blood, 1972, Vol. 39, pp. 759–69.

  4.M. L. Murphy et al., ‘Long-term Survival With Acute Leukaemia’, Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research, 1963, p. 46.

  5.Wolf Zuelzer, ‘Therapy of Acute Leukaemia in Childhood’, Proceedings of the International Conference on Leukaemia Lymphoma, ed. Chris Zarafonetis (Lea & Febiger, 1968).

  6.Donald Pinkel, Treatment of Acute Lymphocytic Leukaemia (Leukaemia Research Fund, 1973).

  7.Editorial, ‘Radical Treatment of Acute Leukaemia in Childhood’, The Lancet, 1972, Vol. 2, p. 910.

  8.E. B. Kurmbahaar, ‘The Blood and Bone Marrow in Yellow Gas (Mustard Gas) Poisoning’, Journal of Medical Research, 1919, V
ol. 40, pp. 497–507.

  9.Stewart F. Alexander, ‘Medical Report of the Bari Harbour Mustard Casualties’, Military Surgeon, 1947, Vol. 101, p. 1216.

  10.Louis S. Goodman et al., ‘Nitrogen Mustard Therapy’, JAMA, 1946, Vol. 132, p. 12. See also Alfred Gilman, ‘The Initial Clinical Trial of Nitrogen Mustard’, American Journal of Surgery, 1963, Vol. 105, pp. 574–8.

  11.See Note 1.

  12.Cornelius P. Rhoads, ‘The Sword and the Ploughshare’, Journal of the Mount Sinai Hospital, 1946, Vol. 13, pp. 299–309.

  13.Lucy Wills, ‘The Nature of the Haemopoetic Factor in Marmite’, The Lancet, 1933, Vol. 2, pp. 1283–4.

  14.Sidney Farber et al., ‘The Action of Pterolyglutamic Conjugates on Man’, Science, 19 December 1947, pp. 619–21.

  15.Sidney Farber et al., ‘Temporary Remissions in Acute Leukaemia in Children Produced by Folic Acid Antagonist Aminopterin’, NEJM, 1948, Vol. 238, pp. 787–93.

  16.Sidney Farber et al., ‘The Effect of ACTH in Acute Leukaemia in Childhood’, Proceedings of the First Clinical ACTH Conference, ed. J. A. Churchill, 1950.

  17.Sidney Farber et al., ‘Chemotherapy in the Treatment of Leukaemia and Wilm’s Tumour’, JAMA, 1966, Vol. 198, pp. 154–64.

  18.Ronald Bodley Scott, ‘Cancer Chemotherapy: The First Twenty-five Years’, BMJ, 31 October 1970, pp. 259–64.

  19.J. H. Burchenal, ‘Clinical Evaluation of a New Anti-metabolite, 6 mercaptopurine in the Treatment of Leukaemia and Other Diseases’, Blood, 1953, Vol. 8, pp. 965–96.

  20.M. E. Hodes et al., ‘Vincaleukoblastine Preliminary Clinical Studies’, Cancer Research, 1960, Vol. 20, p. 1041.

  21.Barnett Rosenberg, ‘Inhibition of Cell Division in E.Coli by Electrolysis Products from a Platinum Electrode’, Nature, 1965, Vol. 205, p. 698. See also J. M. Hill, ‘Cisplatinous Therapy of Various Malignant Diseases’, Proceedings of the American Association of Cancer Research, 1972, p. 20.

  22.‘History of the Cancer Chemotherapy Programme’, Cancer Chemotherapy Reports, 1966, Vol. 50, pp. 349–81. See also Alfred Gelhorn, ‘Invited Remarks on the Current Status of Research in Clinical Cancer Chemotherapy’, Cancer Chemotherapy Reports, 1959, Vol. 5, p. 1217.

  23.Min C. Li, ‘Effect of Methotrexate Therapy Upon Choriocarcinoma’, Proceedings of the Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine, 1956, Vol. 93, p. 361. See also Min C. Li, ‘Historical Background of Successful Chemotherapy for Advanced Gestational Tumours’, AJOG, 1979, Vol. 135, pp. 266–72; Min C. Li, ‘Effects of Combined Drug Therapy on Metastatic Cancer of the Testes’, JAMA, 1960, Vol. 174, pp. 145–53.

  24.Margaret P. Sullivan, ‘Intra-cranial Complications With Leukaemia in Childhood’, Paediatrics, 1957, Vol. 20, pp. 757–81.

  25.James A. Whiteside, ‘Intrathecal Amethopterin in Neurological Manifestations of Leukaemia’, Archives of Internal Medicine, 1958, Vol. 101, pp. 279–85. See also Ralph Johnson, ‘An Experimental Therapeutic Approach to Leukaemia in Mice: Combined Chemotherapy and Central Nervous System Irradiation’, General National Cancer Institute, 1964, Vol. 32, pp. 1333–9.

  26.A. Spiers, personal communication, 1997.

  27.Emil Frei III et al., ‘Studies of Sequential and Combination Therapy in Acute Leukaemia: 6-MP and Methotrexate’, Blood, 1961, Vol. 18, pp. 431–54. See also Emil Frei III et al., ‘The Effectiveness of Combinations of Anti-leukaemic Agents in Inducing and Maintaining Remission in Children With Acute Leukaemia’, Blood, 1965, Vol. 26, pp. 642–56.

  28.Sidney Farber et al., ‘Advances in Chemotherapy of Cancer in Man’, Advances of Cancer Research, ed. Jessie P. Greenstein (New York: Academic Post, 1956).

  29.Howard Skipper, ‘On the Criteria and Kinetics Associated with “Curability of Experimental Leukaemia”’, Cancer Chemotherapy Reports, 1964, No. 34, pp. 65, 328.

  30.William S. Wilcox, ‘The Last Surviving Cancer Cell: The Chances of Killing It’, Cancer Chemotherapy Reports, 1966, Vol. 50, pp. 541–2.

  31.P. George and D. Pinkel, ‘CNS Radiation in Children with Acute Lymphocytic Leukaemia in Remission’, Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research, 1965, p. 22.

  32.See Note 2.

  33.Gaston K. Revera, ‘Treatment of Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia: Thirty Years’ Experience at St Jude’s Children Research Hospital’, NEJM, 1993, Vol. 329, pp. 1289–94.

  34.Donald Pinkel, ‘Treatment of Acute Lymphocytic Leukaemia’, Cancer, 1979, Vol. 43, pp. 1128–37.

  35.K. D. Bagshawe, ‘Successful Drug Therapy in Cancer’, Modern Trends in Oncology, ed. Ronald Raven (Butterworth, 1973).

  36.Wolf Zuelzer, ‘Therapy of Acute Leukaemia in Childhood’, Proceedings of the International Conference on Leukaemia Lymphoma, ed. Chris Zarafonetis (Lea & Febiger, 1968).

  37.James T. Patterson, The Dread Disease: Cancer and Modern American Culture (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1987).

  38.C. Gordon Zubrod, ‘Historic Milestones in Curative Chemotherapy’, Seminars in Oncology, 1979, Vol. 6, pp. 490–506.

  39.Emil Frei III, ‘Clinical Cancer Research: An Embattled Species’, Cancer, 1982, Vol. 50, pp. 1979–92.

  40.A. H. Lang et al., ‘Treatment of Inoperable Carcinoma of the Bronchus’, The Lancet, 1975, Vol. 2, pp. 1161–4.

  41.Colin P. Beg, ‘Clinical Trials and Drugs Toxicity in the Elderly’, Cancer, 1983, Vol. 52, pp. 1896–92.

  42.J. S. Malpas, ‘Are We All Oncologists?’, Journal of the Royal College of Physicians of London, 1984, Vol. 18, p. 82.

  43.Everett Vokes, ‘Combined Modality Therapy of Solid Tumours’, The Lancet, 1997, SII, pp. 4–5.

  11: 1978: The First ‘Test-Tube’ Baby

  GENERAL READING

  Serena Chen and Edward E. Wallach, ‘Five Decades of Progress in Management of the Infertile Couple’, Fertility and Sterility, 1994, Vol. 62, pp. 665–85.

  R. G. Edwards and I. Craft, ‘Development of Assisted Conception in Assisted Human Conception’, British Medical Bulletin, 1990, Vol. 46, pp. 565–80.

  Robert Edwards and Patrick Steptoe, A Matter of Life (Sphere, 1981).

  Roy Greep, ‘Gonadotrophins’, in Endocrinology: People and Ideas, ed. S. M. McCann (New York: American Physiological Society, 1988).

  Maureen McCall, ‘Pursuing Conception’, Canadian Medical Association Journal, 1996, Vol. 154, pp. 1075–9 (a personal account of undergoing in vitro fertilisation).

  V. C. Medvei, The History of Medical Endocrinology (Carnforth: Parthenon, 1993).

  Michael J. O’Dowd and Elliot E. Philipp, A History of Obstetrics and Gynaecology (Carnforth: Parthenon, 1994).

  Nicola Perone, ‘In Vitro Fertilisation and Embryo Transfer: A Historical Perspective’, Journal of Reproductive Medicine, 1994, Vol. 39, pp. 695–700.

  REFERENCES

  1.Robert Edwards and Patrick Steptoe, A Matter of Life.

  2.Editorial, ‘Conception in a Watch Glass’, NEJM, 1937, Vol. 217,p. 678.

  3.G. Pincus and E. V. Enzmann, ‘Can Mammalian Eggs Undergo Normal Development in Vitro?’, Proceedings in the National Academy of Science, 1934, Vol. 20, pp. 121–2.

  4.Gregory Pincus and Barbara Saunders, ‘The Comparative Behaviour of Mammalian Eggs in Vivo and in Vitro’, Anatomical Record, 1939, Vol. 75, pp. 537–42.

  5.John Rock and Miriam Menkin, ‘In Vitro Fertilisation and Cleavage of Human Ovarian Eggs’, Science, 1944, Vol. 100, pp. 105–7. See also Miriam Menkin and John Rock, ‘In Vitro Fertilisation and Cleavage of Human Ovarian Eggs’, AJOG, 1948, Vol. 55, pp. 440–51.

  6.Margaret Marsh and Wanda Ronner, The Empty Cradle: Infertility in America (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996).

  7.M. C. Chang, ‘Fertilising Capacity of Spermatazoa Deposited into the Fallopian Tubes’, Nature, 1951, Vol. 168, pp. 697–8.

  8.R. G. Edwards, ‘Meiosis in Ovarian Oocytes of Adult Mammals’, Nature, 1962, Vol. 196, pp. 446–50.

  9.See Note 1.

  10.Ibid.

  11.Ibid.

  12.R. G. Edwards, ‘Maturation in Vitro of Human Ovar
ian Oocytes’, The Lancet, 1965, Vol. 2, pp. 926–9. See also R. G. Edwards, ‘Maturation in Vitro of Mice, Sheep, Cow, Pig, Rhesus Monkey and Human Ovarian Oocytes’, Nature, 1965, Vol. 208, pp. 349–51.

  13.R. G. Edwards, Roger Donohue et al., ‘Preliminary Attempts to Fertilise Human Oocytes Matured in Vitro’, AJOG, 1966, Vol. 96, pp. 192–200.

  14.R. G. Edwards and B. D. Bavister, ‘Early Stages of Fertilisation in Vitro of Human Oocytes Matured in Vitro’, Nature, 1969, Vol. 221, pp. 632–5.

  15.Dorothy Price, ‘Feedback Control of Gonadal Hormones: Evolution of the Concept’, Pioneers in Neuro Endocrinology, ed. Joseph Meites (New York: Plenum, 1975).

  16.R. Borth and B. Lunenfield, ‘Activité Gonadotrope d’un extrait d’urines de femmes en menopause’, Experientia, 1954, Vol. X, pp. 266–8.

  17.J. K. Butler, ‘Clinical Results With Human Gonadatrophins in Anovulation’, Postgraduate Medical Journal, 1972, Vol. 48, pp. 27–32. See also B. Lunenfield, ‘Historic Aspects of Gonadotropins in the Induction of Ovulation’, Ovulation, ed. Robert Greenblatt (Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott, 1966).

  18.Editorial, ‘Pituitary Gonadatrophins and Multiple Pregnancy’, The Lancet, 1965, Vol. 2, p. 276.

  19.P. C. Steptoe, ‘Laparoscopy and Ovulation’, The Lancet, 1968, Vol. 2, p. 913. See also R. G. Edwards, ‘Tribute to Patrick Steptoe: Beginnings of Laparoscopy’, Human Reproduction, 1989, Vol. 4 (supplement), p. 129.

  20.Patrick Steptoe, Laparoscopy in Gynaecology (E & S Livingstone, 1967).

  21.See Note 1.

  22.R. G. Edwards and Ruth Fowler, ‘Human Embryos in the Laboratory’, Scientific American, 1997, Vol. 223 (6), pp. 45–54. See also P. C. Steptoe and R. G. Edwards, ‘Laparoscopic Recovery of Pre-ovulatory Human Ovocytes, After Priming of Ovaries With Gonadatrophins’, The Lancet, 1970, Vol. 1, pp. 683–5; R. G. Edwards, P. C. Steptoe and J. M. Purdy, ‘Fertilisation and Cleavage in Vitro of Pre-ovulator Human Oocytes’, Nature, 1970, Vol. 227, pp. 1307–9; P. C. Steptoe, R. G. Edwards and J. M. Purdy, ‘Human Blastocysts Grown in Culture’, Nature, 1971, Vol. 229, pp. 132–3.