Subjected to Science: Human Experimentation in America before the Second World War

Susan E. Lederer

ISBN 10: 0801857090 / ISBN 13: 9780801857096

Published by Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997

About this Item

In this text the author provides a history of biomedical research on human subjects in the US from 1890 to 1940. She offers accounts of experiments conducted on both healthy and unhealthy adults and children including the yellow fever experiments and "dental drill" experiments on insane patient. Series: The Henry E. Sigerist Series in the History of Medicine. Num Pages: 216 pages, 9 illustrations. BIC Classification: 1KBB; 3JH; 3JJ; MBGR; MBX. Category: (P) Professional & Vocational; (UP) Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly; (UU) Undergraduate. Dimension: 229 x 152 x 15. Weight in Grams: 342. . 1997. New Ed. Paperback. . . . .

Seller Inventory # V9780801857096

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Subjected to Science: Human Experimentation in America before the Second World War
• Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
• Publication Date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0801857090
• ISBN 13: 9780801857096
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

The first full-length history of biomedical research with human subjects in the period "before Tuskegee"—from 1890 to 1940

Long before the U.S. government began conducting secret radiation and germ-warfare experiments, and long before the Tuskegee syphilis experiments, medical professionals had introduced—and hotly debated the ethics of—the use of human subjects in medical experiments. In Subjected to Science, Susan Lederer provides the first full-length history of biomedical research with human subjects in the earlier period, from 1890 to 1940.

Lederer offers detailed accounts of experiments—benign and otherwise—conducted on both healthy and unhealthy men, women, and children, including the yellow fever experiments (which ultimately became the subject of a Broadway play and Hollywood film), Udo Wile's "dental drill" experiments on insane patients, and Hideyo Noguchi's syphilis experiments, which involved injecting a number of healthy children and adults with the syphilis germ, luetin.

About the Author

Susan E. Lederer is associate professor of the humanities at the Milton S. Hershey Medical Center of the Pennsylvania State University.