The Remedy

January 13, 2014
Former Wired executive editor Goetz (The Decision Tree) offers an intriguing medical and literary history based on “accidental partners in a profound social shift toward science and away from superstition.” Robert Koch, a meticulous and ambitious German country doctor-turned-scientist, isolated the bacteria causing TB and, Goetz writes, in doing so “offered a template” not only for medical science but for “all scientific investigation.” Physician and Sherlock Holmes creator Arthur Conan Doyle also viewed “science as a tool,” and Koch’s work in microbiology “provided the template” for Doyle’s fictional detective’s fascination “with minuscule detail.” Though his scientific work remains an important legacy, Koch never achieved the fame he sought in finding a cure for TB. Yet, Goetz notes, “Koch’s science became a kind of remedy nonetheless,” changing the perception of the disease as “something that could be understood and defended against.” Ironically, Doyle, though an admirer of Koch, would ultimately help debunk Koch’s failed theory that an injection of “lymph” could cure TB. But this pair’s fascinating, convergent stories have much more in common, as Goetz aptly demonstrates that both Koch and Doyle were doggedly inquisitive men who discovered that neither germs nor crime are any match for science. Agent: Chris Calhoun.

August 1, 2014

Until the late 19th century, tuberculosis was responsible for more deaths than any other ailment and its true cause was unknown. Goetz (The Decision Tree) follows the work of the brilliant and ambitious 19th-century German doctor Robert Koch, describing how Koch's careful investigative methods and novel imaging techniques led to the identification of the guilty bacillus. Goetz describes Koch's heated rivalry with Louis Pasteur and how it led to Koch prematurely promoting a cure that ultimately proved ineffective and, indeed, scandalous. Arthur Conan Doyle, then a young country doctor, was at first intrigued by Koch's claims but grew disillusioned. The central conceit of the book, that Conan Doyle's brief encounter with Koch's investigative style somehow influenced the creation of Sherlock Holmes, is thin gruel, but as an exposition of the rapid progress of medical science in the late 1800s, this work is significant and well done. The narration by Donald Corren is solid and engaging. VERDICT Recommended for listeners interested in the history of science. ["This book will be of interest to those who enjoy reading about history and science and 19th-century Europe, as well as fans of Sherlock Holmes," read the review of the Gotham hc, LJ 6/15/14.]--Forrest E. Link, Coll. of New Jersey, Ewing Twp.

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