Hans Zinsser (1878–1940)

Published in 1944, Zinsser leads you through his avenues of interest (research) in hunt of an understanding of Typhus - he christens the endeavor a biography. Splendid. This is the style of book I want to read (well, minus the side comments on the worth of women and other races/ethnicities).

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Chapter X: More about the louse: the need for this chapter will be apparent to those who have entered into the spirit of this biography

Typhus is not dead. It will live on for centuries, and it will continue to break into the open whenever human stupidity and brutality give it a chance.… (mer)

Zinsser Microbiology is a wonderful textbook on Microbiology. I know it is a bit of a tautology to say so in such a manner, but I cannot express it in any other way. Since it is an advanced course of biology and whatnot, and it is for a college level course, it pulls no punches in showing you organic chemistry and mathematics that pertain to cell populations and stuff like that. You open it up, and there’s a picture of a bacteria culture, next page, BAM!, logarithms in your face. So it demonstrates ATP cycles and other metabolic functions, it shows the physiology of bacteria and fungi and other microorganisms, and it shows some ways to combat those organisms. For instance, it shows the chemical composition of penicillin. It also lists some other chemicals that do various things to bacteria, fungi, protists, viruses and other such things. It is somewhat exhaustive actually, though I suppose it could have gone more in depth…

Although when you speak of depth, it does contain references to further reading at the end of each chapter. So if you feel like reading about Immunology, it has some papers and books for you to peruse. Like the first one it references in that section happens to be Granulomatous Hypersensitivity by W.L. Epstein. It sounds pretty interesting actually.

All in all, this was an excellent resource. The only problem I have with it is not really the fault of the book, but one of the field it covers. Since I imagine that Microbiology has advanced a great deal since this came out, it might be a bit out of date, but what do you expect from a book printed in 1972? I happen to own the fifteenth edition, so it doesn’t even have an ISBN, though I don’t know if that is the case, or if it just isn’t on the database or whatever yet. So although it covers the chemical basis of genetics and stuff like that, I don’t know if it really requires knowing the complete genome of some creatures and other such related things.… (mer)