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Laughing Death

The Untold Story of Kuru

  • Book
  • © 1990

Overview

Authors:
  1. Vincent Zigas
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Table of contents (10 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages N1-x
    Download chapter PDF

  2. The Island and I

    • Vincent Zigas
    Pages 1-18

  3. The Threshold

    • Vincent Zigas
    Pages 19-56

  4. Martial People with Dignity

    • Vincent Zigas
    Pages 57-98

  5. Denizens of the High Valleys

    • Vincent Zigas
    Pages 99-126

  6. The Mountains Fretted with Evil Spell

    • Vincent Zigas
    Pages 127-160

  7. Cheerful Optimism

    • Vincent Zigas
    Pages 161-196

  8. Opening the Pathway to Kuru Research

    • Vincent Zigas
    Pages 197-228

  9. Pioneers Against the Dreaded Scourge

    • Vincent Zigas
    Pages 229-264

  10. Meandering Pathways of Kuru Research

    • Vincent Zigas
    Pages 265-310

  11. Epilog

    • Vincent Zigas
    Pages 311-312

  12. Back Matter

    Pages 313-319
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Keywords

About this book

It has been a difficult, sometimes painful, story to tell in its entirety, but I have done my best to be accurate both in facts and in dates, for I feel that l owe the truth to the many who have become valued acquaintances, and sometimes friends. All these have constantly requested more news of my "Green Dwelling" and my discovery of a fatal neurological disease previously unknown to Western medicine. This book is for them, in lieu of letters that I ought to have written and did not. It is also my concern to produce innocent amusement, unrestricted by canon or precedent, for those who require some relaxation from the fatigue generated by so many parasitic forms of life in this less than perfect world.

My peers, the medical scientists, who read this will realize that this book is neither a scientific treatise, nor a balance-sheet of all the achievements and failures of medical science, but a presentation of the major implications of the factors that continually determine our medical ethics - including some of the less prizeworthy drawbacks. 

Reviews

[A] swashbuckling romance of heroic adventure....A poetic description of the terrain and the inhabitants....Evocative...exquisite images of life in New Guinea ....A romantic account of the heroic age of medicine....Zigas enjoys the theatricality of an arresting story....An attention-getting style of writing....His appreciative description of one of his... assistants might well apply to himself: "a great actor, an innocent liar of the most magnificent proportions, and hence very good entertainment." -The New York Times

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Laughing Death

  • Book Subtitle: The Untold Story of Kuru

  • Authors: Vincent Zigas

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-4490-5

  • Publisher: Humana Totowa, NJ

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

  • Copyright Information: The Humana Press Inc. 1990

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-0-89603-111-1Published: 04 May 1990

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-1-4612-8843-5Published: 04 October 2011

  • eBook ISBN: 978-1-4612-4490-5Published: 06 December 2012

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: X, 315

  • Topics: Language and Literature

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