Pneumonia before antibiotics : therapeutic evolution and evaluation in twentieth-century America / Scott H. Podolsky.

Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006.

x, 254 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Includes bibliographical references (p. [151]-246) and index.

The advent of type-specific antipneumococcal serotherapy -- A "specific" specific and the turbid age of applied immunology -- Fundamental tensions: clinical "proof" and clinical resistance -- The Massachusetts experiment and New (York) tensions -- The new standard, the new deal, and the pneumonia control programs -- Histology of a revolution -- A "modern" revolution: the limits and uses of controlled clinical trials -- The dismantling of pneumonia as a public health concern.