BMJ  2004;329:1408 (11 December), doi:10.1136/bmj.329.7479.1408

reviews

Book

Aspirin: The Story of a Wonder Drug

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

It might seem strange to have a popular book of more than 300 pages dedicated to just one drug. But aspirin is a special case. One of the most brilliant medical historians and journalists of our time, the late Roy Porter, wrote a book called The Greatest Benefit to Mankind: A Medical History of Humanity from Antiquity to the Present ( BMJ 1998;316: 713[Free Full Text]). Replace "humanity" for "aspirin" in the title, and it would ideally fit the book under review. Diarmuid Jeffreys, a journalist and television producer, has written an inspiring story based on archival sources, interviews, and an amazing knowledge of the relevant literature. His book clearly demonstrates that the border between academic medical history and journalistic investigation is blurred.

Diarmuid Jeffreys

Bloomsbury, £16.99, pp 352 ISBN 0 7475 7077 9 www.bloomsbury.com

Rating: ****

Jeffreys describes aspirin as, among other things, "the most remarkable drug . . . [Full text of this article]

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Boleslav L Lichterman

Centre for the History of Medicine, Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, Moscow, Russia licht@aha.ru


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