She then turns to 17th century Rome where malaria was a scourge, but just about the time that Urban VIII was becoming Pope, cinchona bark started drifting in and providing some miraculous relief for those who could afford it. She proceeds to do exactly that and comes up with a fascinating story.Īn introductory chapter explains her interest in malaria gained as a child in Kenya where the disease affected her personally. Furthermore, as an historian, she is intent on plunging deeply into unexplored archives to examine what this strange bark, cinchona, had to do with human history. Her interest is in the cinchona tree and its bark, the stuff that gives us quinine and some degree of control over malaria. What new could anyone possibly have to say on the subject? I was relieved, then, when the author made the same observation in her second paragraph. While the mosquito causes a lot of mischief from irritating welts to West Nile Fever, our gravest complaint is malaria, undoubtedly the most destructive disease in human history.Ĭonsequently, there has been a lot written about malaria and the mosquito, so I approached The Miraculous Fever Tree skeptically. If there is a creature we’d like to see extinct it’s the mosquito. René Dubos and Jean Dubos, The White Plague Epidemics have often been more influential than statesmen and soldiers in shaping the course of political history, and disease may also color the moods of civilizations.
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