num_pages: 304
description: Behind every landmark drug is a story. It could be an oddball researchers genius insight a catalyzing moment in geopolitical history a new breakthrough technology or an unexpected but welcome side effect discovered during clinical trials. Piece together these stories as Thomas Hager does in this remarkable century-spanning history and you can trace the evolution of our culture and the practice of medicine. Beginning with opium the joy plant which has been used for 10000 years Hager tells a captivating story of medicine. His subjects include the largely forgotten female pioneer who introduced smallpox inoculation to Britain the infamous knockout drops the first antibiotic which saved countless lives the first antipsychotic which helped empty public mental hospitals Viagra statins and the new frontier of monoclonal antibodies. This is a deep wide-ranging and wildly entertaining book.
language: English
title: Ten Drugs: How Plants, Powders, and Pills Have Shaped the History of Medicine
publisher: Abrams Press