Research Catalog

Title

Asleep : the forgotten epidemic that remains one of medicine's greatest mysteries / Molly Caldwell Crosby.

Author

Crosby, Molly Caldwell.

Publication

New York : Berkley Books, 2010.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

x, 291 p., [16] p. of plates : ill.; 24 cm

Summary

"In 1918, a world war was raging, and a lethal strain of influenza was circling the globe. In the midst of all this death, a bizarre disease appeared in Europe, Eventually known as encephalitis lethargica, or sleeping sickness, it would spread across the world, leaving millions dead or locked in institutions. Then, in 1927, it would disappear as suddenly as it had arrived." "This book tells the story of an epidemic largely forgotten in the shadow of the Spanish flu pandemic that accompanied it. The disease earned its name from the long sleep many patients succumbed to, but the kaleidoscope of symptoms ranged from unending sleep to dangerous insomnia, facial tics to catatonia, Parkinson's to violent insanity, The disease did have one positive effect: it was a catalyst for the growth of the previously underappreciated field of neurology ... Asleep, set in 1920s and '30s New York, follows a group of neurologists through hospitals and insane asylums as they try to solve this worldwide epidemic and treat the patients who fell victim to it - patients who learned the worst fate was not dying of sleeping sickness, but surviving it." "To this day, doctors do not know whether encephalitis lethargica is caused by a virus, bacteria, or the body's own immune response. They do know that it may reemerge in the wake or a new flu pandemic. Asleep takes you into the frightening history of this forgotten disease - and the frantic effort to conquer it before it strikes again."--BOOK JACKET.

Subjects

• Encephalitis, Arbovirus > epidemiology
• Epidemic encephalitis > History
• Case Reports
• Disease Outbreaks > history
• History, 20th Century
• United States
• Europe
• Encephalitis, Arbovirus > history

Genre/Form

Case Reports.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents

Prologue: Inside -- Case History One: An Unknown Soldier -- 1. An Epidemic Begins -- 2. Constantin von Economo -- 3. The London Outbreak -- Case History Two: Ruth -- 4. New York City -- 5. Ruth -- 6. The Neurologist -- 7. The Medical Investigators -- Case History Three: Adam -- 8. Adam -- 9. Smith Ely Jelliffe -- 10. The Alienist -- 11. Only the Beginning -- Case History Four: Jessie -- 12. Jessie -- 13. 1925 -- 14. A Two-Headed Beast -- Case History Five: Rosie -- 15. Madness -- 16. Rosie -- 17. The Neurological Institute -- Case History Six: Sylvia -- 18. The Matheson Commission -- 19. Josephine B. Neal -- 20. Vaccine Trials -- 21. Sylvia -- 22. I Have Seen the Future -- Case History Seven: Philip -- 23. Philip -- 24. Gray Matter -- 25. Past or Prologue? -- Epilogue: Virginia and the Forgotten Epidemic.

ISBN

• 9780425225707
• 0425225704

LCCN

2009034928

OCLC

• ocn435728301
• 435728301
• SCSB-8854257

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries