Book dossier

Pneumonia before antibiotics

by Scott H. Podolsky

"In Pneumonia Before Antibiotics, clinician-historian Scott H. Podolsky uses pneumonia's enduring prevalence and its centrality to the medical profession's therapeutic self-identity to examine the evolution of therapeutics in twentieth-century America." "Focusing largely on the treatment of pneumonia in the first half of the century with type-specific serotherapy, Podolsky provides insight into the rise and clinical evaluation of therapeutic "specifics," the contested domains of private practice and public health, and - as the treatment of pneumonia made the transition from serotherapy to chemotherapy and antibiotics - the tempo and mode of therapeutic change itself."--Jacket.