Parasitology Biological Sciences Books : The Fever Trail: Malaria, the Mosquito and the Quest for Quinine

The Fever Trail: Malaria, the Mosquito and the Quest for Quinine

£1.40


the fever trail - An detailed excellent book if you are really interested in how people managed to treat/cure Malaria back in the 18th and 19th century and before - and want to know how hard it was in the late 19th century to get the seeds/plants out of the Andes and over to the UK (and Java where it was possible to grow it easily) in order that the British Empire in India could have the bark to treat Malaria without being held to ransom by the governments of South America. The local Indians knew well what the bark could do and zealously guarded their treasure. The actual chemical analysis of the bark to find what it was that killed the parasite and cured Malaria (Quinine) took a lot longer - it was also realised quite early on that there were many types of Cinchona tree which yielded quinine of different strengths. All this was realised by the explorers who underwent extreme conditions often to see their seedlings die on the voyage back. Quinine was taken/added to tonic water to give some immunity and gin was put with it to kill the bitter taste ! - Ironically - the forests created in India and Java were used to recolonise the Andes which were eventually deforested of Cinchona. The benefits of Quinine where of course of huge significance in the 1st and 2nd War and others no doubt.

Rather Predictable - I was very disappointed with The Fever Trail, mostly because I had the feeling I had read most of it before somewhere. It begins in familiar territory (the hoary myth about the Countess of Cinchona supposedly being cured by quinine), and then it proceeds to tell the story of Spruce, Ross and all as they try to understand the nature of malaria and parasites. It ends with the author aimlessly travelling around with various specialists (some no more than cranks) as they try to find a vaccine. Mark Honigsbaum is quite a good storyteller, but he adds little new to the story he tells.

A fascinating mixture of history, travel and science - This book encompasses so much it is difficult to convey its scope in a short review. I ordered it expecting a straightforward science book about malaria, but was surprised to discover it was so much more. It starts with the romantic story of the Countess of Chinchon, and her cure from malaria in Lima in 1638, and then artfully weaves the botany and history of the cinchona tree with the stories of a series of explorers - French, Spanish, British and Dutch - who went to the Andes in search of it. For cinchona, the tree which cured the Countess, turned out to be the source of quinine and it only grew in South America. To get it, botanists had to cross the isthmus of Panama, land on the coast of Ecuador or Peru, and climb up and over the Andes, before descending to the humid cloud forests above the Amazon.It was a perilous journey and the author deals vividly and amusingly with the many mishaps along the way, making the point that so frequent did these missions to the Andes fail, it was almost as if the cinchona tree was cursed. Eventually, three explorers succeeded - all of them British - though the true hero of the tale turns out to have been a Bolivian Indian. It would be enough if Honigsbaum had stopped there, but instead he brings the story right up to date, explaining how quinine was replaced by synthetic drugs after WW2, but has enjoyed a rennaissance recently because of the spread of deadly, drug-resistant strains of malaria. His accounts of the plagues of mosquitoes on the Orinoco had me scratching all over, and his descriptions of how the malaria parasite enters and devours red blood cells made me wonder why I didn t pay more attention during biology lessons. After reading this book, I will never look at an Anopheles mosquito the same way again - not only is it, as Honigsbaum points out, probably the deadliest insect in the world but it has been decimating human settlements since the dawn of time.

Mixes science and adventure perfectly. - I really enjoyed reading Fever Trail and highly recommend it to people who enjoy a mixture of true life adventure and scientific facts. The facts never get so much that you would want to put down the book and have a rest. Great read.




The Fever Trail: Malaria, the Mosquito and the Quest for Quinine