Rheumatic fever in America and Britain : a biological, epidemiological, and medical history /
Peter C. English.
- New Brunswick, N.J. : Rutgers University Press, �1999.
- 1 online resource (xx, 257 pages) : illustrations
Includes bibliographical references (pages 173-236) and index.
pt. I. The emergence of rheumatic fever in the nineteenth century -- Ch. 1. The new face of rheumatism, 1798-1840 -- Ch. 2. Acute rheumatism and hospitals, 1840-1880 -- Ch. 3. Walter Butler Cheadle and the "typical case," 1880-1890 -- pt. II. The clinical and scientific challenges of an evolving disease -- Ch. 4. Rheumatic fever as sepsis, 1890-1920 -- Ch. 5. Clinical Management, 1890-1925 -- Ch. 6. Allergy, heredity, environment, and the emergence of the streptococcus, 1925-1945 -- pt. III. The disappearance of rheumatic fever in the twentieth century. Ch. 7. From acute to chronic, 1925-1945 -- Ch. 8. At the bedside, 1925-1945 -- Ch. 9. Penicillin, cortisone, and heart surgery, 1945-1965 -- Ch. 10. The waning of rheumatic fever : molecular biology, epidemiology, and history, 1945-1965.
In 1940, rheumatic fever accounted for nearly 40,000 deaths in the US. By 1970, only 256 deaths were attributed to this disease in the US. English, a physician and a professor of history of medicine at Duke University, examines the historical course of rheumatic fever. He explores both the shifting biological nature of this disease and the experiences of physicians and patients who fought its ravages, and explains insights from biology, epidemiology, and social history.