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Noguchi
A blow by blow progression through the life of a Japanese bacteriologist who lived from 1876 to 1928. After many trials and tribulations he came to do research on various tropical diseases as well as syphilis. He made a few major mistakes and his research methods were nothing if not questionable. Still he received many honors for his work in Latin America and Africa.
419 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1931
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August 20, 2019
Ever try to swallow a brick?
Noguchi Hideyo who died of yellow fever in Accra (then Gold Coast) in 1928 was an eccentric genius who worked in bacteriology. Born in an extremely poor family in Japan in 1876, he managed to get a medical education and go to America to work in Philadelphia and New York laboratories. Eventually he made important discoveries about syphilis and leprosy, aided many countries in Central and South America to fight various diseases but got involved in some heavy inquiries as to the ethics of his research methods. You could find out all this and more by reading a Wikipedia article on him and I strongly advise you to do so.
This is one of the worst-written books it has been my bad luck to run across. I bought it at a university library sale in the early 1960s and unknowingly kept it over half a century only to have it turn out to be a total clunker. I have never before found a biography written in the present tense! That and the strange manner of innumerable sentences that seem to have been written by someone with only a glancing familiarity with the English language (didn’t they have editors back in 1931?) really put me off. I had never heard of Dr. Noguchi before and after 100 pages I still had no idea why a book had been written about him. The author was no doubt a renowned psychologist in Cincinnati, but his ability to transmit interesting information about Japan or scientists must be questioned. If I persevered it was only worthwhile because I can tell you---don’t read this book!
Noguchi Hideyo who died of yellow fever in Accra (then Gold Coast) in 1928 was an eccentric genius who worked in bacteriology. Born in an extremely poor family in Japan in 1876, he managed to get a medical education and go to America to work in Philadelphia and New York laboratories. Eventually he made important discoveries about syphilis and leprosy, aided many countries in Central and South America to fight various diseases but got involved in some heavy inquiries as to the ethics of his research methods. You could find out all this and more by reading a Wikipedia article on him and I strongly advise you to do so.
This is one of the worst-written books it has been my bad luck to run across. I bought it at a university library sale in the early 1960s and unknowingly kept it over half a century only to have it turn out to be a total clunker. I have never before found a biography written in the present tense! That and the strange manner of innumerable sentences that seem to have been written by someone with only a glancing familiarity with the English language (didn’t they have editors back in 1931?) really put me off. I had never heard of Dr. Noguchi before and after 100 pages I still had no idea why a book had been written about him. The author was no doubt a renowned psychologist in Cincinnati, but his ability to transmit interesting information about Japan or scientists must be questioned. If I persevered it was only worthwhile because I can tell you---don’t read this book!
Displaying 1 of 1 review