Book notes
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Mary Jo Festle. Second Wind: Oral Histories of Lung Transplant Survivors. Palgrave Studies in Oral History. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012. xvi + 280 pp. Ill. $85.00 (ISBN: 978-0-230-34091-6, ISBN-10: 0-230-34091-1).
Second Wind traces the history of lung transplantation while using fifty-eight oral history interviews to assist readers to "understand the experiences of illness" (p. 7). The book, according to the author, contains eight total chapters of two distinct kinds: "Chapters two and eight analyze the 'macro-level' sociomedical events in the history of lung transplantation," while the remaining chapters tell the tales of "'ordinary' transplant candidates and recipients" (p. 6). Such chapters include "End-stage Lung Disease" (chap. 1), "Making the Decision and Being Evaluated for Transplant" (chap. 3), "Waiting and Coping" (chap. 4), and "Getting 'The Call'" (chap. 5).
History of Hansen's Disease in Kumamoto, Japan: Commemorating the 100th Anniversary of the National Sanatorium Kikuchi Keifuen. Abridged ed. Kumamoto, Japan: National Sanatorium Kikuchi keifuen, 2011. 127 pp. Ill. No price given.
In 1909, Kikuchi Keifuen was established in the Kumamoto prefecture as Japan's national sanatorium for leprosy patients. The institution published this book in Japan as part of its 100th Anniversary Project in 2009 to commemorate its first one hundred years. Now available in English, the book takes "an in-depth look at the incidents related to Hansen's disease sufferers at Honmyoji Temple, the course of opening this sanatorium with a look at its medical treatment and all facets of nursing care, the lifestyle of its inpatients and a prospectus for Keifuen including a brief chronology of the sanatorium" (p. iii).
Paul Kopperman, ed. "Regimental Practice" by John Buchanan, M.D.: An Eighteenth-Century Medical Diary and Manual. The History of Medicine in Context. Surrey, UK: Ashgate, 2012. xiii + 231 pp. $104.95 (978-0-7546-6877-0).
In 1746 a recently retired medical officer of the British Army, Dr. John Buchanan, wrote a manuscript based on his observations working as a surgeon during the War of the Austrian Succession. The manuscript, "Regimental Practice. Or A Short History of Diseases common to His Majesties own Royal Regiment of Horse Guards when abroad (Commonly called the Blews)," was never published and is "unusual in that it is focused on a single British regiment and reflects the perspective of a regimental surgeon" (p. ix). The annotated manuscript is presented in this volume along with an introductory chapter examining Buchanan's life and medical career, his medical education, and analysis of his practice. [End Page 137]
The Editors
