Asleep: The Forgotten Epidemic That Remains One of Medicine's Greatest Mysteries

by Molly Caldwell Crosby

Overview

A fascinating look at a bizarre, forgotten epidemic from the national bestselling author of The American Plague.

In 1918, a world war raged, and a lethal strain of influenza circled the globe. In the midst of all this death, a bizarre disease appeared in Europe. Eventually known as encephalitis lethargica, or sleeping sickness, it spread worldwide, leaving millions dead or locked in institutions. Then, in 1927, it disappeared as suddenly as it arrived.

Asleep, set in 1920s and '30s New York, follows a group of neurologists through hospitals and asylums as they try to solve this epidemic and treat its victims-who learned the worst fate was not dying of it, but surviving it.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781101185681
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	03/02/2010
Sold by:	Penguin Group
Format:	eBook
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	472,638
File size:	540 KB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Molly Caldwell Crosby is the national bestselling author of Asleep: The Forgotten Epidemic That Remains One of Medicine's Greatest Mysteries and The American Plague: The Untold Story of Yellow Fever, the Epidemic That Shaped Our History, which has been nominated for several awards. Crosby holds a master's degree in nonfiction and science writing from Johns Hopkins University and previously worked for National Geographic magazine. Her writing has appeared in Newsweek, Health, and USA Today, among others.

Table of Contents

Author's Note ix

Prologue: Inside 1

Case History 1 An Unknown Soldier 5

1 An Epidemic Begins 7

2 Constantin von Economo 13

3 The London Outbreak 21

Case History 2 Ruth 29

4 New York City 31

5 Ruth 44

6 The Neurologist 50

7 The Medical Investigators 54

Case History 3 Adam 63

8 Adam 65

9 Smith Ely Jelliffe 71

10 The Alienist 81

11 Only the Beginning 92

Case History 4 Jessie 99

12 Jessie 101

13 1925 109

14 A Two-Headed Beast 117

Case History 5 Rosie 121

15 Madness 123

16 Rosie 136

17 The Neurological Institute 146

Case History 6 Sylvia 155

18 The Matheson Commission 157

19 Josephine B. Neal 162

20 Vaccine Trials 169

21 Sylvia 181

22 I Have Seen the Future 193

Case History 7 Philip 207

23 Philip 209

24 Gray Matter 212

25 Past or Prologue? 222

Epilogue: Virginia and the Forgotten Epidemic 227

Acknowledgments 231

Notes 235

Bibliography 263

Index 279