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The Woods Hole Cantata: Essays on Science and Society
The Woods Hole Cantata essays articulate a scientist's remarkable attempt to transcend the fragmentation of a society of specialists. Dr. Weissmann explores the social, cultural, and esthetic ramifications of contemporary biomedical research, placing the sophisticated insights of the highly specialized laboratory into a broader context of intellectual history. The essays draw on his wealth of experience--as teacher and clinician at Bellevue Hospital, marine biologist at Woods Hole, Massachusetts, and investigator of the inflammatory response--and cover topics ranging from funding of AIDS research to copper cures for arthritis, from William Osler's Aequanimitas to medical journalism in Berlin. Throughout, Dr. Weissmann demonstrates how the scientist's faculties of logical thought and close observation can enrich his perception of society and be brought to bear on a wide range of social and humanistic issues.
230 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1985
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
July 9, 2026
THE WOODS HOLE CANTATA (Essays on Science and Society) is hardly a summer beach book
or a bedside reader to lull you into peaceful sleep. Written in 1985 by Gerald Weissmann, M.D.
(1930-2019) this collection of thought provoking essays combines the author's two loves:
medicine and the liberal arts.
He writes with equal passion about the discovery of typhus vaccine research in the concentration
camps at the expense of human prisoners and the money allocated to the cost of aids research
versus government- funded air conditioners and utility bill allowances for the poor and elderly.
He debunks copper bracelets as a fantasy "cure" for everything from gout to arthritis. He explains
the definition of when human life begins according to the state versus a woman's right to choose.
He recalls taking med students on rounds in the prison ward at New York's Bellevue Hospital and
the attitudes that were directed toward inmates and medical diagnoses when there was no back-
ground record or patient history made available.
He details a trip to Stockholm for the 1982 Nobel prize ceremonies: everything from transportation
to what they ate and what they wore. There is an engaging biographical piece on country doctor/
novelist and poet William Carlos Williams. Then there was the summer spent at the marine research
laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts studying the life cycle of a common sea urchin at a time
when students were protesting all nuclear research.
The vocabulary is often off-putting: so called 50 cent words like puissant(powerful), quotidian(ordinary)
and three score(60). The medical research terminology is advanced : medical background preferred.
It is also a challenging read for the literary references.
These essays were written over 40 years ago but the topics are still relevant today. Dr. Weissmann
was a full time physician specializing in the fields of immunology and rheumatology as well as a researh
scientist, editor and essayist. He loved the arts including poetry and music. Most of all, his interest
in the human race from its homeless to its literati was the best reason to put the extra effort into
reading this collection.
or a bedside reader to lull you into peaceful sleep. Written in 1985 by Gerald Weissmann, M.D.
(1930-2019) this collection of thought provoking essays combines the author's two loves:
medicine and the liberal arts.
He writes with equal passion about the discovery of typhus vaccine research in the concentration
camps at the expense of human prisoners and the money allocated to the cost of aids research
versus government- funded air conditioners and utility bill allowances for the poor and elderly.
He debunks copper bracelets as a fantasy "cure" for everything from gout to arthritis. He explains
the definition of when human life begins according to the state versus a woman's right to choose.
He recalls taking med students on rounds in the prison ward at New York's Bellevue Hospital and
the attitudes that were directed toward inmates and medical diagnoses when there was no back-
ground record or patient history made available.
He details a trip to Stockholm for the 1982 Nobel prize ceremonies: everything from transportation
to what they ate and what they wore. There is an engaging biographical piece on country doctor/
novelist and poet William Carlos Williams. Then there was the summer spent at the marine research
laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts studying the life cycle of a common sea urchin at a time
when students were protesting all nuclear research.
The vocabulary is often off-putting: so called 50 cent words like puissant(powerful), quotidian(ordinary)
and three score(60). The medical research terminology is advanced : medical background preferred.
It is also a challenging read for the literary references.
These essays were written over 40 years ago but the topics are still relevant today. Dr. Weissmann
was a full time physician specializing in the fields of immunology and rheumatology as well as a researh
scientist, editor and essayist. He loved the arts including poetry and music. Most of all, his interest
in the human race from its homeless to its literati was the best reason to put the extra effort into
reading this collection.
Displaying 1 of 1 review