1 comments about The Excellent Doctor Blackwell: The Life of the First Female Physician.

1. ... the best biography of Elizabeth Blackwell ever written. ...
   
   Julia is a meticulous researcher. She personally visited every repository in Britain and America that has primary source materials relating to Blackwell. During these travels, she spoke on Blackwell at Upstate Medical University and the New York Academy of Medicine. Her use of the facts and images she found in these repositories is judicious, scholarly, and precise. Her narrative is abundant with quotes from diaries, correspondence, and other scarce or unique items, both manuscript and printed, all clearly documented. Each of these quotations is entirely germane to its matter at hand and most of them are quite fascinating. Every assertion Julia makes is well supported by primary sources.
   
   The book is also a real page turner. Julia paints a vivid portrait of an opinionated, controlling, ambitious, but benevolent, idealistic, and mostly optimistic Elizabeth growing up in a large, close-knit, non-conformist, intellectual, religious, abolitionist family characterized by intensely competitive sibling rivalry and beset by sine waves of financial prosperity and despair. The story reads so much like a novel that readers could sometimes forget they are reading history.
   
   Nevertheless, there are lacunae and ellipses. Expecting more detail in a certain section, I often felt frustrated when the narrative did not give it, but instead proceeded -- not abruptly, but decisively -- into another aspect of Blackwell's life. For example, Chapter Seven concerns her clinical training from March 9 to September 23, 1848, at "Old Blockley," the Philadelphia Almshouse, later Philadelphia General Hospital. Three times Julia mentions Blackwell's attending physician, "Dr. Benedict," with no first name and no further detail. Since he played a central role in Blackwell's life for six months and since she called him "the loveliest man the Almighty ever created," I would have liked to read a bit more about this "Dr. Benedict." [He was in fact Nathan Dow Benedict (1815-1871), a member of the University of Pennsylvania medical class of 1840, a Fellow of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia since 1845, Amariah Brigham's successor at the New York State Asylum for Lunatics at Utica in 1849, and generally a rather interesting physician.]
   
   The book could easily -- and probably should -- be twice as long. Blackwell led a very exciting life which could be told in greater depth without boring readers. Julia's fluid and graceful writing style could support this extra length with no trouble. Blackwell's encounters with physicians like Benedict, Austin Flint, Clemence Sophia Lozier, and many others deserve more than just mentions and allusions.
   
   Blackwell did not become a physician because she was attracted to medicine or even to healing or compassion. Rather, she went into this field specifically to show the world what a properly motivated woman could achieve. Unlike the Seneca Falls feminists whom she criticized, she did not blame women's subservience and low social status on men. She believed instead that women's problems came mainly from their own lack of will to say and do what they most deeply believed was right. Moreover, she held that if women only exercised their natural moral superiority, infusing the ethos with maternal values, the world would be a better place.
   
   Julia excels at showing Blackwell's philosophical, political, and religious growth. She traces the character of Blackwell's moralism, which was woman-centered but not feminist, and the influence of François-Marie-Charles Fourier and William Henry Channing on the "Christian Socialism" that became her ideology.
   
   The scholarly apparatus is impeccable and the bibliography contains some real gems, such as Redelia Brisbane's biography of Elizabeth's sister Anna's lover, the Fourierist Albert Brisbane; John Closkey's history of Philadelphia General Hospital; and Flint's anonymous article, "Female Physicians," Buffalo Medical Journal, 3 (1848): 494-496.

No comments about A Life of Ernest Starling (People and Ideas Series) (People and Ideas Series).

2 comments about The Curious Man: The Life and Works of Dr. Hans Nieper.

1. This brilliant man was a threat to all conventional pharmacologically-driven medicine in this country and I am not surprised that they shut him down. His research found the answers to many of the major systemic diseases which are bankrupting this country such as: cancer, heart disease, diabetes and multiple sclerosis and his cures are still standard in Europe and Japan where Big Pharma has less power than here. Medical students owe it to themselves to investigate his thinking before they are sucked in to the blind, uncurious, dogma-ridden, superstitious and ineffective world of conventional medicine.
   John McClure, Belmont, Vermont



2. dr neiper will always be remebered to me as a true hero in alternative medicine! my spouse has multiple sclerosis and without his works, she would be alot worse off today! his findings stunned the american fda and they forbade him entrance into the U.S. because his cures were not approved by our ever protecting FDA. what is the FDA protecting us from? getting well? Thank you Dr.Neiper for your books,writings, and for helping my spouse!

1 comments about House of Miracles.

1. I wrote this book as a huge thank-you to the professional people at the Women & Children's Hospital of Buffalo, New York. This is a story about healthcare professionals who work day in and day out to do the best they possibly can to ensure that the women and children in the community receive the best healthcare possible. I have also included a number of patient stories that will certainly tug at your heart strings. From the foreword, written by Jill Kelly (wife of Hall of Fame Quarterback Jim Kelly) to the patient stories about Anthony Stinson, Alexis Grace Kilroy, and Olivia Stockmeyer - I believe that this book will find a true place in your heart. Thank you for reading along, and I appreciate the help I received in getting these important stories out there.

1 comments about A Drop in the Bucket: The Joys, Sorrows, and Horrors of Medical Missions.

1. This book is excellent. Dolores Edwards is a wonderful story teller. The account of the Edwards' experiences in medical missions is full of humor, and as she puts it, Joys, Sorrows and Horrors. I recommend it to anyone who has an interest in Christian Missions, especially in the medical field.

No comments about Cicely Saunders - Founder of the Hospice Movement: Selected Letters 1959-1999.

1 comments about Leadership to Win.

1. Leadership to Win will help anyone that needs assistance understanding why relationships in business are an important part of what it takes to be successful.

2 comments about Doctor George: An Account of the Life of a Country Doctor (Medical Humanites).

1. I spent a majority of my childhood as a patient of Doc George. He was also my father and grandfather's doctor. These stories illuminate the way things once were in rural Illinois. My siblings and I all can recount time spent playing in the waiting room. Doc always kept a large collection of toys for his young patients. He was a wonderful man, and this book is a great reminder of the man he was. Rural Illinois couldn't have asked for a better doctor.



2. This is an excellent book for anyone interested in what it has been like to be a country doctor for the last century. Dr mitchell's father was a country doc in the same town. This book is primarily a series of stories in the James Herriott mode that takes us back to a simpler lifestyle. I woul rec for anyone interested in medicine as a career or the history of the rural midwest in the horse and buggy era

5 comments about A Kernel in the Pod: The Adventures of a "Midlevel" Clinician in a Top-level World.

1. I've been a physician assistant for 13 years and was excited to read what turned out to be a well written, but very depressing account of my profession. I disagree with reviewers who think that the author's experiences are typical of physician assistants. If I would've had as many bad experiences in medicine as this guy did, I would've found another line of work.



2. After reading the review by the person who said there's only 30-50 pages about the PA profession in the first 260, I decided I would reluctantly purchase this book as those 50 pages were some of the few offered on Amazon about PA autobiography. In fact, that reviewer was wrong, and most of the book is about practicing as a PA. However, the author's choices about what to include seem odd. The book comes across as mostly venting about his mistreatment at the hands of various people, while he mentions only in passing attending conferences and his expertise in headache treatments. In the Acknowledgements, he mentions that he started publishing almost immediately out of PA school. Including more information about these aspects of his life would have made for a fuller picture of him as a person, a balanced view of the PA profession, and a more interesting story-line.
   
   That said, the venting seems totally justified. In fact, the book is out-right depressing. If this book were the only information I had about the PA profession, I would probably avoid being a PA like the plague.
   
   Also of note is the fact that the author seems to be a devout Christian, which may turn off some readers and attract others.
   
   The writing is casual and the book is a fast read. It is easy to skim large sections and then jump back in without too much loss.
   
   Overall, I would not recommend this book to those interested in becoming PAs. The professional experiences are a horror, and the section about the author's training is probably outdated as far as the application and decision-making process are concerned.



3. I found this book to keep my interest and to be very enjoyable to read. As a future PA I found the book sort of upsetting and could possibly turn many people off to the PA career path. I also found many of the author's actions to be very odd and did not agree with most of his religous/family/career choices. Even so, I really liked the book and would highly recommend it.



4. I laughed myself silly and then cryed with the Jones family. I think that life is sometimes stranger than fiction. I found it spellbinding. I think that Mike's ability to land on his feet at times when it seemed impossible to do so was remarkable. I would recommend for anyone (not just those in the medical field) to read as a comment how one person can overcome discouraging circumstances.



5. This book brought me to tears. Not because of anything related to being a P.A. Actually, about half of this book is about being part of a large, international mission. Having served with a large mission for 18 years (in some of the same locations Mike visited, actually) and gone through some of the same heartaches he and his family went through, I could really relate to the pain he experienced. It was wonderful to see that someone else had gone through it, too, and could do a good job describing what it was like. A good book for missions administrators.

No comments about Daktari (Softcover).