|
|
Books > Biography > Science, technology & engineering
In spring 1876 a physician named James Madison DeWolf accepted the
assignment of contract surgeon for the Seventh Cavalry, becoming
one of three surgeons who accompanied Custer's battalion at the
Battle of the Little Big Horn. Killed in the early stages of the
battle, he might easily have become a mere footnote in the many
chronicles of this epic campaign - but he left behind an eyewitness
account in his diary and correspondence. A Surgeon with Custer at
the Little Big Horn is the first annotated edition of these rare
accounts since 1958, and the most complete treatment to date. While
researchers have known of DeWolf's diary for many years, few
details have surfaced about the man himself. In A Surgeon with
Custer at the Little Big Horn, Todd E. Harburn bridges this gap,
providing a detailed biography of DeWolf as well as extensive
editorial insight into his writings. As one of the most highly
educated men who traveled with Custer, the surgeon was well
equipped to compose articulate descriptions of the 1876 campaign
against the Indians, a fateful journey that began for him at Fort
Lincoln, Dakota Territory, and ended on the battlefield in eastern
Montana Territory. In letters to his beloved wife, Fannie, and in
diary entries - reproduced in this volume exactly as he wrote them
- DeWolf describes the terrain, weather conditions, and medical
needs that he and his companions encountered along the way. After
DeWolf's death, his colleague Dr. Henry Porter, who survived the
conflict, retrieved his diary and sent it to DeWolf's widow. Later,
the DeWolf family donated it to the Little Bighorn Battlefield
National Monument. Now available in this accessible and fully
annotated format, the diary, along with the DeWolf's personal
correspondence, serves as a unique primary resource for information
about the Little Big Horn campaign and medical practices on the
western frontier.
The extraordinary life of Bernard Lovell began before the First
World War and his story encompasses many of the great events of
last hundred years: the Second World War, the invention of radio
astronomy, the space race, the Moon landings, the exploration of
the Solar System, the Cold War, the Cuban missile crisis and the
defence of Britain against nuclear attack. It can now be revealed
that he was also a spy. "He ranks as one of the great visionary
leaders of science," Martin Rees, the Astronomer Royal, said of
him. The great radio telescope which Lovell built became and
remains one of the most important scientific instruments in the
World. The Jodrell Bank Observatory and the Lovell Telescope have
held their place at the frontier of research for fifty five years.
This book seeks to explore succinctly and accessibly Lovell's life
and achievements in the scientific and political context of the
time. His legacy remains great, as can be seen from the extensive
media coverage and personal tributes that his death in 2012
attracted all over the world. With the seventieth anniversaries of
many wartime events in which he played a crucial role, as well as
the recent declassification of information relating to his
activities as an agent in the Cold War, this biography is sure to
have a broad and timely interest.
Andrew T. Still, the founder of osteopathic medicine, reveals how
he matured into a medical pioneer from humble beginnings in the
rural frontier of the United States. Beginning with his upbringing
in rural Missouri, we witness how Still became accustomed to
practicality at a young age. At the time he was a boy in the 1840s,
the area he and his family lived in was barely settled - many basic
public amenities such as hospitals and schools simply did not
exist. Still's father became the local doctor, and would introduce
his son to the medicine. The outbreak of the American Civil War in
the 1860s disrupted the young Still's apprenticeship in medicine
and surgery, although he gained valuable experience treating sick
and wounded soldiers as a hospital steward. During and after the
war, Still was astonished at how ineffectual so many medical
techniques were - this, coupled with researches and a further
course in medicine, spurred him to create the science of
osteopathy.
|
|