Semmelweis Awards
By the Pain Research Institute
Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis
perhaps did as much to relieve suffering
and death as anyone in history. Untold millions are alive today because
of the dedication of this tortured man. What he discovered together
with
the related work of Joseph Lister, changed virtually everything that is
done in medicine. The tragedy of the existence of Ignaz Philipp
Semmelweis
is that his work was never recognized until after his untimely death.
Morton
Thompson's biography of Semmelweis, The Cry and The Covenant,
is
a superb literary achievement, almost equal to the man himself.
The Cry and the Covenant
is a must for everyone in the health
care professions, a must for everyone who cares about history,
discovery,
or medicine. The book is so skillfully crafted that you get inside the
man, dreaming his dreams and feeling his despair. Readers will be
filled
with the exhilaration of the discovery that could save the lives of
thousands
of women. "A man of sorrows, rejected and acquainted with grief"
appropriately fits this man who became a "savior" to so many
millions.
Even though the story is tragic,
knowing that good ultimately triumphs,
lifts the spirit and gives hope to those who struggle today. The book
was
recommended to me by a neurosurgeon whose life has shown that "the more
things change, the more they stay the same." Time and technology have
wrought
infinite changes in the way we live. Great progress has been made but
the
nature of man has remained the same. "We build the machine wonderful
but
do we build the man?" We can find in modern medicine today (indeed on
the
Internet) all of the individuals in the book. There are Semmelweises
today
and there are those who reject them. (Sydney Ross Singer and Soma
Grismaijer,
who discovered one of the major causes of most breast cancer are modern
Semmelweis examples. See: Could Bra Wearing increase the Incidemnce
of Breast Cancer? John Gofman is another. See: Better
Than A Cure for Breast Cancer)
If you only read two biographies
in your lifetime, The Cry and The
Covenant should be one of them. It can probably be found in
your
used book store or from Amazon.com. We are honored to
present
the first Semmelweis award to the biographer of Semmelweis - Morton
Thompson
for his superb book.
"Semmelweis Awards" will be given
to people who discover new medical
truth in this age. The site will be perpetually under construction; so
please come back. It has been a pleasure to serve you.
Darrell J. Stoddard, Founder - Pain
Research Institute
266 East 3200 North Provo, UT 84604 U.S.A.
Phone: 801-377-6900
E-mail: stoddard@healpain.net
Website: http://www.healpain.net
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