TAKING THE MEDICINE: A SHORT HISTORY OF MEDICINE’S BEAUTIFUL IDEA, AND OUR DIFFICULTY SWALLOWING IT
Book ID/图书代码： 11320008B24603
English Summary/英文概要： This is a controversial history of medicine and medical drugs from a completely new angle – and a wake-up call to us all. Instead of merely placing cures in the culture of their day, Druin Burch dares to ask ‘did they work?’ The answer is a resounding no. We follow the stories of major drugs like opiates, quinine and aspirin, and meet startling accounts of use and abuse, of accidental findings, and of heroic labours to understand their impact. Clearly these were powerful substances that had a major effect on the human body, but no one was quite sure how they worked, or if, in the long term, they really did effect a cure or merely relieved symptoms, masking the real problems. After the Second World War things started to change, beginning with antibiotics. But the great leap forward came with the development of reliable testing – unglamorous statistics and data that saved millions of lives. The real heroes are the men and women who have persuaded the world of the vital importance of blind, randomised, controlled trials as against the ‘intuition’ of doctors. Only by such testing can we avoid the horrors of misapplied drugs like thalidomide. And only by long-term tests, as well as those undertaken before a drug’s release, can we discover that apparent miracle cures may bring more harm than benefits.
We want to put our faith in doctors and the drugs they offer, but for centuries this faith has been misplaced. We need to ask more about how our new wonder drugs work and how they have been tested. We need to question our own doctors; to make the medical profession as a whole examine its prejudices; to press governments against handing control to powerful global companies.
Taking the Medicine – written with passion and wit, packed with fascinating stories and scientific surprises – is both alarming and optimistic. By understanding the past, we can safeguard the future.
Chinese Summary/中文概要： 本书从一个全新的角度详述了具有争议的医药学和药物的历史，对我们每个人都有振聋发聩的作用。Druin Burch不是仅仅在他们所处的那个年代的文化中讨论各种治疗法，他更敢于质疑：“它们有用吗？”答案是一声干脆响亮的“不”。
我们追踪了主要药物的轨迹，如麻醉剂，奎宁，阿司匹林，惊讶地发现了它们的用途和滥用的情况，以及大剂量使用某种药物时会产生的不良影响，还有一些意外的发现。很显然，这些药物药性很强，对人体有重要的影响。但是没有人能肯定它们是如何起作用的，或是如果长期使用，是不是真的能使人痊愈还是仅仅只能减轻症状，从而掩盖了真正的实质性问题。二战后，随着抗生素的问世，一切都开始改变了。随着可靠性强的实验的发展，人们在医药学领域取得了长足的发展。这些实验中得出的数据，虽然单调乏味，但却拯救了数以百万计的人的生命。在这一过程中，真正的英雄是那些劝导人们重视随机可控的药物实验，而不是盲目的轻信医生的直觉的人们。只有通过实验，我们才能避免因药物误用而引起的恐慌，如萨立多胺。也只有通过长期的实验，以及在药物正式面市之前进行的实验，我们才能发现那些表面上看起来具有神奇疗效的药物有可能弊大于利。
我们想信任医生和他们开的药，但是几个世纪以来，我们一直都错信他们了。我们需要咨询，更多地了解这些新的被誉为奇迹的药物是如何产生效用的，如何被检测的。我们需要咨询我们自己的医生，需要努力让医学专业作为一个整体审视本专业的职业偏见，需要向政府施加压力，对大的跨国医药公司加强控制。
《吃这种药》整本书充满着激情，闪耀着睿智的火花，全书以富有吸引力的故事和科学奇事为支撑，既能给人们以警示，又能激发人们乐观的情绪。通过了解历史，我们能更好地确保未来的安全。(ly)
Awards/获奖情况：`Each chapter... is a self-contained pleasure to read, like mini-fables on the perils of medicine’---Sunday Times `Druin Birch makes a compelling case.’
About the Author/作者介绍： Druin Burch, 34, studied Human Sciences at Oxford. After research in human and chimpanzee genetics, he studied medicine and has worked in hospitals across south east England. He teaches human evolution, physiology and ecology at Oxford, and writes for medical journals, the Times Literary Supplement and The Guardian. This is his first book. He lives in the Cotswolds.
Druin Burch，34岁，曾在牛津大学研究人类科学。在对人类和黑猩猩遗传学进行了深入研究后，他又转入对医学的钻研，并在英国东南部的许多医院工作过。他现在在牛津大学教授人类进化学，生理学，生态学等学科，并为医学杂志，《泰晤士报文学增刊》和《卫报》撰稿。本书是他的第一本书。他现住在科茨沃尔德。
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