Summary: The maxim "You are what you eat" could have originated with a few hungry self-experimenters who proved that nutrition is critical to good health. As this program illustrates, one of the most prominent of these scientists was Dr. Joseph Goldberger, an early-20th-century researcher who ate the feces and scabs from patients with pellagra in his quest to prove it was not infectious. Viewers will...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: Killer bugs like the plague, cholera, and typhoid were all brought under control by adventuring self-experimenters. This program looks at medical trailblazers who took the ultimate risk and injected or ingested some of the most terrifying diseases known to humankind. Describing Louis Pasteur's flirtation with mortality-during which he asked his assistants to inject him with the rabies virus-the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: John Hunter, surgeon to King George III, was said to have inoculated himself with a venereal disease-an example of well-intentioned research with more than one unfortunate result. This program presents a fascinating overview of the battle against infectious diseases, depicting several instances in which doctors exposed themselves to syphilis, yellow fever, cholera, or other nefarious microbes...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: Before anesthetics, surgeons relied on speed, brandy, and brutality. This program reveals how a fairground dentist named Horace Wells made an essential breakthrough in pain mitigation by ingesting nitrous oxide and pulling out one of his own teeth. Recounting Wells' foray into other surgical procedures with the help of a colleague, William Morton, the program explores the subsequent split...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007