The Life and Death of Smallpox

Ian Glynn, Jenifer Glynn

Cambridge University Press, Aug 30, 2004 - Science - 278 pages

This is an engaging and fascinating story of a conditional human success story. Smallpox has been one of the most devastating scourges of humanity throughout recorded history, and it is the only human illness to have been eradicated, though polio may soon follow it to official extinction through human agency. However, while smallpox is officially extinct in nature, our fears that stocks of smallpox virus may return as a weapon of bioterrorists have led to the stockpiling of vaccine, and continuing vigilance, even though the official victory over smallpox is now 15 years old. The Life and Death of Smallpox presents the entire engaging history of our struggle and ultimate victory over one of our oldest and worst enemies. The story of the campaign to track down and eradicate the virus, throughout the world--the difficulties, setbacks, and the challenges successfully met--is a highlight of a fascinating book, but we can't be confident of the ending. The final chapter of the book clearly and authoritatively explains the current status of the threat, from the deliberate release of smallpox or other potential agents of biological terrorism.

What people are saying

Review: The Life and Death of Smallpox

User Review  - Shea Mastison - Goodreads

The pacing of the writing is a little out of whack. They start off very intricately in the earlier (and more dramatic) past of small pox; fast forward a century in a single paragraph, and then break ...

Review: The Life and Death of Smallpox

User Review  - Morgan Cole - Goodreads

Boring :(

Contents

• The most terrible of all the ministers of death: 1
• From myths to mummies: 6
• AD o to 1500: 14
• 15001700: 30
• News from the East: 43
• Kicking against the pricks: 55
• The heyday of inoculation: 75
• From cuckoos to cowpox: 95
• The worldwide spread: 115
• Confusion and compulsion: 130
• A hundred years on: 143
• Bring hither the fatted calf: 165
• Sorting out the viruses: 177
• the beginning of the end: 190
• Annihilation of the smallpox: 200
• And out of good still to find means of evil: 228
• Notes: 246

About the author

Ian Glynn is a Professor and Former Head of the Physiological Laboratory, University of Cambridge, England. Renowned for his work on the sodium pump, the molecular process that charges the brain's batteries, he is a fellow of the Royal Society and an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts
and Sciences.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Life and Death of Smallpox
• Authors: Ian Glynn, Jenifer Glynn
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2004
• ISBN: 0521845424, 9780521845427
• Length: 278 pages
• Subjects: Health & Fitness / Diseases / Contagious; Medical / History; Science / Life Sciences / Microbiology