Experiment Perilous
Physicians and Patients Facing the Unknown
by Renee C(laire) Fox, 1959Ward F-Second in a research hospital in the 1950s was occupied by doctors cum researchers, patients cum experiments. With research procedures different from what they became in the fifty years between the setting of this book and today, and with patients expected to die, Ward F-Second presents an interesting picture of medical history. Fox entered the ward as an observer with the intent of writing a sociological piece on the mechanisms of a research ward, and she did a great job.
Fox takes notes on the humor of the patients and physicians (sometimes repeating herself), commenting on its morbidity, without being judgemental. In fact, the lack of judgements in this book is refreshing and unusual; the contrasts between patients are frequently ones that would lend themselves well to judgements.
Patients in this ward are all male, which Fox does not comment on. The description of the medical conditions in this book are both technical and out of date, but they can either be skipped, without much loss of plot or point, or can be understood with a small (not quite minimal) amount of outside research or background.
Enjoyable reading.
