Popular Science Review - The Discovery of the Germ

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Review - The Discovery of the Germ - John Waller

Sometimes the title of book captures your attention, flagging up the excitement to come. Other titles intrigue and fascinate. But there are some that say, in a very straightforward way, "this book is going to be dull." Sadly that's true of the title of John Waller's book, which is a shame, because it is anything but dull. It's partly the pedestrian phrase, but also that word "germ" that somehow seems rather 1950s and quaint. But readers of this website are not going to be put off by titles - let's get inside.

There are two pleasant surprises awaiting. Firstly, John Waller's style is light and doesn't have the typical medical historian's tendency to be too, well medical, for an ordinary reader. Secondly it's much more significant stuff that the title seems to suggest, because it's about the total transformation of medicine from the vague guesses that had ruled all the way back to ancient Greek times, to a discipline based on scientific observation and that had some hope of actually curing a disease, rather than making it worse as most early doctors seemed to do.

It's also fascinating to discover just how much resistance there was in the early days to the microbial approach to medicine, not to mention some of the strong characters at the time.

Because of all this we have awarded the book a meaty four stars, which it deserves, but for reasons it is hard to pin down it feels rather at the lower end of the four star range. Waller's style, as mentioned, is light, but lacks a certain story-telling strength. However, this is still a highly recommended book on a subject that should be fascinating to anyone, not just fans of biology and human science.

Also in hardback:

Reviewed by Brian Clegg

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