*Starred Review* According to British journalist Jeffreys' well-documented book, aspirin was born a little more than 100 years ago. That is, the word
aspirin was coined in 1899 as a label for a new product, acetylsalicylic acid, manufactured by the German textile dye and pharmaceutical company Bayer. The concoction had been a known pain and fever reliever for well more than 6,000 years, but it took Bayer, which would eventually lose control of its baby in America for more than 75 years, to create the very first drug that owed its existence to a commercial rather than a scientific or medical ethic. Yes, aspirin was the earliest offspring of the increasingly uncomfortable yet wildly profitable marriage of medicine and commerce. What with Americans knocking back about 80 billion (yes,
billion) 300 mg aspirin tablets a year, to say nothing of even more billions taken throughout the rest of the world, the story of this little white pill makes fascinating reading. Besides the drug's widely known medical applications for pain and fever relief, heart attack and stroke prevention, and more, its colorful history includes drama, pathos, plot twists, humor, intrigue and even a handful of scurrilous and despicable characters.
Donna ChavezCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
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Pressestimmen
"A fast-paced, medical-historical mystery, filled with twists and turns." (
Chicago Tribune )
"A remarkable story...This is more than the story of aspirin: It is a history lesson." (
San Diego Union-Tribune )
"Diarmuid Jeffreys seamlessly manages his complicated subject.Throughout, Jeffreys renders an absorbing account of the drug's ride from obscurity to celebrity and around about again to its rebirth as today's wonder drug." (
San Francisco Chronicle )
"One of the most fascinating stories in the whole of medicine." (
New Scientist )
A San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of 2004 (
San Francisco Chronicle )
