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Red oozes from the patient's gums. He has a rushing headache and the whites of his eyes look like lemons. He will likely die within days.
Here is the true story of how four Americans and one Cuban tracked down a killer, one of the word's most vicious plagues: yellow fever. Set in fever-stricken Cuba, the reader feels the heavy air, smell the stench of disease, hear the whine of mosquitoes biting human volunteers during the surreal experiments. Exploring themes of courage, cooperation, and the ethics of human experimentation, this gripping account is ultimately a story of the triumph of science.
This fast-paced account follows four scientists who were given the task of going to Cuba to find the cause of yellow fever in 1900. The backdrop of the Spanish-American War paints the picture of the scientists' mission's importance as the statistics of infected soldiers rose each day. Black-and-white photos of yellow fever patients in hospitals, the makeshift camp set up to test the mosquito theory, fever charts, and copies of letters—including one where volunteers were asked for their consent to be experimented on in order to find out what was causing yellow fever—are included. Graphic descriptions—Was there liquid blood in parts of the digestive tract? Partially digested blood that looked like coffee grounds inside the stomach?—will probably keep most young readers enthralled. Drawings of mosquitoes throughout the book do not leave much to the imagination about the cause of yellow fever although the pacing of the experiments and theories follow an appropriate tempo to keep readers interested. Short biographies on the volunteers who loaned themselves to experimentation follow the epilogue. Details from the scientists' lives, such as the letters they wrote home to their families and their reactions to the sometimes tedious nature of their work, help keep them accessible to readers possibly considering a similar profession. This book lends itself well to understanding the testing of and experimenting of hypotheses. Reviewer: Kelly Czarnecki
| Price | Condition | Delivery | Seller | Action |
| $99.99 | Digital |
| WonderClub |
Kyle Foley
reviewed The Secret of the Yellow Death: A True Story of Medical Sleuthing on February 10, 2014 The Secret of the Yellow Death: A True Story of Medical Sleuthing
I will use this great book for upper elementary and junior high students in my home school. It is a thoroughly documented and interesting book on finding the cure for yellow fever.
Dr. Walter Reed is sent to the yellow fever stricken island of Cuba- his job- to find the cause of this deadly illness. Yellow fever victims were easily diagnosed by their yellow skin, yellow eyes, bleeding gums, high temperature, and low pulse. The diagnosis was easy but finding a cure would be challenge.
With the help of three other scientists/ doctors, Dr. Reed heads up the research to find the cause. Believing the culprit is Bacillus icteroides, Dr. Reed assigns each of the men to a different aspect of research: culturing, autopsies, and microscopic study all to no avail.
One of the doctors, Jesse Lazear, was certain mosquitoes were the cause but he was not in charge and his job was to obey the orders of Dr. Reed. Finally, finally, the Reed team travels to visit the Cuban scientist, Dr. Carlos Finlay, who had devoted twenty years to his theory that a specific species of female mosquito carried yellow fever obtained from an ill person and then biting a new victim inserted the bacteria causing certain illness.
Taking a female Aedes aegypti mosquito in a test tube to the bed of a yellow fever patient, "Lazear swiftly removed the cotton plug and placed the open end of the tube flat on the patient's arm of belly, Patiently, he watched as the mosquito settled, inserted its proboscis through the skin, and sucked... then he picked up the tube... and after several days passed, he let each one of these 'infected' mosquitoes bite himself or another healthy volunteer." But nothing happened! No one got sick!
Discouraged and with the mosquitoes beginning to look sickly, Dr. Carroll allowed the sickly bug to bite him for his nourishing blood. Later that week Dr. Alva Pinto took one look at Carroll and pronounced, "yellow fever."
Was Carroll's illness simply a tragic coincidence or was it an important clue?
This book is informative, interesting and gives young readers a very good example of deductive reasoning and scientific theory and research.
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