Hermaphrodites and the Medical Invention of Sex

Book Description

Punctuated with remarkable case studies, this book explores extraordinary encounters between hermaphrodites--people born with "ambiguous" sexual anatomy--and the medical and scientific professionals who grappled with them. Alice Dreger focuses on events in France and Britain in the late nineteenth century, a moment of great tension for questions of sex roles. While feminists, homosexuals, and anthropological explorers openly questioned the natures and purposes of the two sexes, anatomical hermaphrodites suggested a deeper question: just how many human sexes are there? Ultimately hermaphrodites led doctors and scientists to another surprisingly difficult question: what is sex, really?

Hermaphrodites and the Medical Invention of Sex takes us inside the doctors' chambers to see how and why medical and scientific men constructed sex, gender, and sexuality as they did, and especially how the material conformation of hermaphroditic bodies--when combined with social exigencies--forced peculiar constructions. Throughout the book Dreger indicates how this history can help us to understand present-day conceptualizations of sex, gender, and sexuality. This leads to an epilogue, where the author discusses and questions the protocols employed today in the treatment of intersexuals (people born hermaphroditic). Given the history she has recounted, should these protocols be reconsidered and revised?

A meticulously researched account of a fascinating problem in the history of medicine, this book will compel the attention of historians, physicians, medical ethicists, intersexuals themselves, and anyone interested in the meanings and foundations of sexual identity.

Customer Reviews:

useful........2006-09-05

This one's easy: 1) It's a great introduction to Intersex issues; 2) in the trans community we talk a lot about the distinction between sex and gender, and often like to mention how gender is constructed but sex isn't. This book, however, points out that sex, too, is constructed: in this case, by modern medicine; 3) it's a little more academic, sometimes is repetitive, but it's got a wealth of information.

I've only met 5 Hermaphrodites and they were nice........2005-08-07

I'm in the medical field - I've been a nurse for 27 years and I've only run across 5 or 6 such individuals ala intersexual'
and it's a rare, rare book indeed that can carry on such an intellectual discussion on this condition.
What I learned that I valued the most is that modern western medics and nurses and parents should act in haste when encountering such a special person.
Sexual ambiguity is what it is....medical people were well-meaning when they saught to correct it, but they possibly could have destroyed the true gender identity of a intersexed individual.
Living in the enlightened society of today, with western modern standards, there is a lot less "fear" associated with intersexed persons.....more facination than fear anyhow.
This book is very intellectual - but understandable by the average college-read person. I encourage all persons who have become aware of this 'condition' to pick up this fine book - read it - and learn a bushel-full of facts regarding hermaphrodites and the various 'forms' people come equipped with. I have only yet begun to understand that this condition may be more prevelant than ever considered before.
This is a very facinating book and it comes with my highest recommendation for a truly underrepresented topic.

an important book.......2001-05-07

I consider myself an "enlightened" feminist and of course I believe that gender is socially constructed, but I still had a lot to learn from this book. It's not just that gender is socially constructed, but sex itself: nothing is "natural." Nothing -- not chromasomes, genitals, nor secondary sex characteristics like breasts, facial hair, body hair, and voice -- has meaning until we ascribe it a meaning. Doctors and the medical profession have participated in the social construction of gender and sex by creating the hermaphrodite as a monstrosity that deviates from binary norms rather than as a part of a continuum of sex and gender.

Dreger's book focuses on the collision of hermaphrodites with the medical profession in 19th century Britain and France, a time period when feminists and homosexuals were beginning to challenge sexual boundries. Dreger sucessfully balences stories of individuals with the larger social context. Also, she never resorts to euphemisms, and the accompanying photographs are something that is missing from the standard human anatomy textbook. We should see and appreciate humanity in all its infinite variety and not force anyone to conform to a constructed "norm."

Dreger's final chapter explores the plight of the intersexed in contemporary America. If we are truely to "celebrate diversity," we are going to have to become educated about the millions of intersexed in this country and become sensitive to their issues... because they are issues that concern us all.

Amazing!.......1999-04-27

This book is wonderful! It gives a tremendous amount of insight to the intersexed. A must for anyone interested in the history of sexuality.

Exposes cultural imperative disguised as medical necessity.......1998-05-27

The history of the clinical management of intersex has previously been relegated to medical texts- texts which illuminate technologies to "treat" intersex while ignoring the experience of the recipients of such protocols. Alice Dreger's book unveils the identities of those who heretofore have appeared in textbook photographs and illustrations with their genitals in sharp focus but with their faces obscured. In the process, Dreger reveals how medicine has often tragically subordinated what is between the patient's ears and in the patient's heart to what is between the patient's legs. While physicians would be well-served to incorporate the information and perspectives Dreger offers, the book should appeal to a far larger audience because it challenges the reader's assumption that sex is like Carvel (two flavors only) when in reality it is Baskins & Robbins.

Normal: Transsexual CEOs, Crossdressing Cops, and Hermaphrodites with Attitude

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TG tourism done well
One third of a great book
Keen Insight, Delightful Style, and Fascinating
Keen Insight, Delightful Style, and Fascinating
Normal? Apparently the Author doesn't think so ...

Normal: Transsexual CEOs, Crossdressing Cops, and Hermaphrodites with Attitude
Amy Bloom
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 140003244X
Release Date: 2003-09-09

Book Description

Amy Bloom has won a devoted readership and wide critical acclaim for fiction of rare humor, insight, grace, and eloquence, and the same qualities distinguish Normal, a provocative, intimate journey into the lives of “people who reveal, or announce, that their gender is variegated rather than monochromatic”—female-to-male transsexuals, heterosexual crossdressers, and the intersexed.

We meet Lyle Monelle and his mother, Jessie, who recognized early on that her little girl was in fact a boy and used her life savings to help Lyle make the transition. On a Carnival cruise with a group of crossdressers and their spouses, we meet Peggy Rudd and her husband, “Melanie,” who devote themselves to the cause of “ordinary heterosexual men with an additional feminine dimension.” And we meet Hale Hawbecker, “a regular, middle-of-the-road, white-bread guy” with a wife, kids, and a medical condition, the standard treatment for which would have changed his life and his gender.

Casting light into the dusty corners of our assumptions about sex, gender and identity, Bloom reveals new facets to the ideas of happiness, personality and character, even as she brilliantly illuminates the very concept of "normal.”

Customer Reviews:

TG tourism done well.......2007-08-07

Normal flows logically from her clever crossdressing denouement in Come To Me - an unequivocally straight view tempered by a transcending humanism.

As usual, Bloom's prose is witty, engrossing and tight as a snare drum. She mixes her personal views, field quotes and historical backdrops like a hit record pro. The first two essays, on FtM transsexualism and MtF CDing, provide her book with its sharp polarity. Regarding the former, Bloom concludes, "I met men"; regarding the latter, Bloom allows they "are as far from gender warriors and feminists as George W. himself" - and she nails it each time. (This brings up a questionable subtext, though: Bloom, via her editing, seems to suggest that it's 'easier' to be a man because they're 'simpler.' There's no way enough material visited or studied in this slim, amusing book to justify that view.) The Intersex chapter, alas, has far fewer quotes, providing essentially a podium for ISNA (which is cool).

Bloom approaches her topic from the outside, and it is her ladylike skepticism that gives Normal its confiding, maternal touch.

One third of a great book.......2006-01-25

The jewel here is the section on crossdressers. It is entertaining and dead on. You see, I used to be a crossdresser--until I became a woman. One thing that so many of my sisters don't want you to know, and don't want to remember themselves, is that most transsexuals (at least the ones who weren't gay when we were men) began as straight crossdressers. As adolescents, we discovered that it was intensely erotic to wear panties, bras, and other lingerie. We did this in private, and we looked into a mirror, and we masturbated. As we grew older, the intense sexuality of this experience diminished (but did not disappear), and we discovered that we were gratified to venture out (no longer in lingerie but in skirts, nylons, and blouses). Some of us were able to enlist our wives in this activity.

Unlike so many social scientists, Amy Bloom sees what is in front of her face. These crossdressing men--just like me before them--say that they have a feminine side, which she cannot see. What she does see is the intense eroticism of their activity (for them that is). Why is it a turn on to be appraised by others as a beautiful woman? The answer is autogynephilia, which is what we all have. Autogynephilia is being turned on by the idea that you are a woman. For a good introduction to this concept read The Man Who Would Be Queen.

Also look at Deirdre McCloskey's autobiography, Crossing: A Memoir. She used to be just like the men in Normal. Like me, she made the decision to go further, and she became a woman. But there is nothing fundamentally different between those men and us.

The rest of Normal is okay but not nearly as compelling. Thus the four stars.

Keen Insight, Delightful Style, and Fascinating.......2003-12-06

After a popular novel and two stunning collections of short stories, psychotherapist and fiction writer Amy Bloom turns an eye toward gender, and her new non-fiction book is a knockout. Made up of three individual essays and an Afterword called "On Nature," Bloom examines issues of gender that are outside what most of society calls "normal." In "The Body Lies: Female-to-Male Transsexuals," we are introduced to a number of people born genetically male who are living as women (with or without sex reassignment surgery); in the section on "Heterosexual Crossdressers," we learn about manly men who, at times, enjoy dressing in feminine garb; the last segment, "Hermaphrodites with Attitude," is about people born with ambiguous "genital anomalies." The author interviewed numerous transsexuals, crossdressers, and intersexed people as well as doctors, educators, sex researchers, and others to give readers an engrossing glimpse at the confusion, prejudice, and misunderstanding that occurs when people are not so easily boxed into categories of "male" or "female." With a deft touch and a wry sense of humor, Bloom makes a cogent argument for acceptance and understanding. In a segment that will no doubt be much quoted, she writes, "(O)ur mistake is in thinking that the wide range of humanity represents aberration when in fact it represents just what it is: range. Nature is not two little notes on a child's flute; Nature is more like Aretha Franklin: vast, magnificent, capricious-occasionally hilarious-and infinitely varied" (p. 149)

Anyone interested in a combination of delightful writing style and keen insight about issues of gender will find this book fascinating. I highly recommend it.

Keen Insight, Delightful Style, and Fascinating.......2003-12-06

After a popular novel and two stunning collections of short stories, psychotherapist and fiction writer Amy Bloom turns an eye toward gender, and her new non-fiction book is a knockout. Made up of three individual essays and an Afterword called "On Nature," Bloom examines issues of gender that are outside what most of society calls "normal." In "The Body Lies: Female-to-Male Transsexuals," we are introduced to a number of people born genetically male who are living as women (with or without sex reassignment surgery); in the section on "Heterosexual Crossdressers," we learn about manly men who, at times, enjoy dressing in feminine garb; the last segment, "Hermaphrodites with Attitude," is about people born with ambiguous "genital anomalies." The author interviewed numerous transsexuals, crossdressers, and intersexed people as well as doctors, educators, sex researchers, and others to give readers an engrossing glimpse at the confusion, prejudice, and misunderstanding that occurs when people are not so easily boxed into categories of "male" or "female." With a deft touch and a wry sense of humor, Bloom makes a cogent argument for acceptance and understanding. In a segment that will no doubt be much quoted, she writes, "(O)ur mistake is in thinking that the wide range of humanity represents aberration when in fact it represents just what it is: range. Nature is not two little notes on a child's flute; Nature is more like Aretha Franklin: vast, magnificent, capricious-occasionally hilarious-and infinitely varied" (p. 149) Anyone interested in a combination of delightful writing style and keen insight about issues of gender will find this book fascinating. I highly recommend it.

Normal? Apparently the Author doesn't think so ..........2003-07-20

Wow, another book on the TG world (anticipation, anticipation)! Then -- letdown. Just imagine how your maiden aunt, or a conservative suburban club-woman, might see the transgendered world of (mostly) early Baby-Boomers as filtered through the observations of a TG-bashing mentor, i.e. the self-styled Canadian "sex scientist" Ray Blanchard. Sorry, it just doesn't live up to its promise as a fitting explication of the subject, and its WAY too short to do so, even had it gone seriously into understanding TG/TS/CD folk. A work of clever opinion, but little social merit. My significant other and I had a few good laughs over this one.

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Ruined my summer
Middlesex an awsome read
Excellent writing on controversial topic
Una Mariavillosa Saga Familiar!
Completely Unique--Breaks New Ground

Middlesex: A Novel
Jeffrey Eugenides
Manufacturer: Audio Renaissance
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio Cassette

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ASIN: 1559277807

Amazon.com

"I was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit day in January of 1960; and then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August of 1974." And so begins Middlesex, the mesmerizing saga of a near-mythic Greek American family and the "roller-coaster ride of a single gene through time." The odd but utterly believable story of Cal Stephanides, and how this 41-year-old hermaphrodite was raised as Calliope, is at the tender heart of this long-awaited second novel from Jeffrey Eugenides, whose elegant and haunting 1993 debut, The Virgin Suicides, remains one of the finest first novels of recent memory.

Eugenides weaves together a kaleidoscopic narrative spanning 80 years of a stained family history, from a fateful incestuous union in a small town in early 1920s Asia Minor to Prohibition-era Detroit; from the early days of Ford Motors to the heated 1967 race riots; from the tony suburbs of Grosse Pointe and a confusing, aching adolescent love story to modern-day Berlin. Eugenides's command of the narrative is astonishing. He balances Cal/Callie's shifting voices convincingly, spinning this strange and often unsettling story with intelligence, insight, and generous amounts of humor:

Emotions, in my experience aren't covered by single words. I don't believe in "sadness," "joy," or "regret." … I'd like to have at my disposal complicated hybrid emotions, Germanic traincar constructions like, say, "the happiness that attends disaster." Or: "the disappointment of sleeping with one's fantasy." ... I'd like to have a word for "the sadness inspired by failing restaurants" as well as for "the excitement of getting a room with a minibar." I've never had the right words to describe my life, and now that I've entered my story, I need them more than ever.

When you get to the end of this splendorous book, when you suddenly realize that after hundreds of pages you have only a few more left to turn over, you'll experience a quick pang of regret knowing that your time with Cal is coming to a close, and you may even resist finishing it--putting it aside for an hour or two, or maybe overnight--just so that this wondrous, magical novel might never end. --Brad Thomas Parsons

Book Description

In the spring of 1974, Calliope Stephanides, a student at a girls school, Grosse Pointe, MI, finds herself drawn to a chain-smoking, strawberry-blond classmate with a gift for acting. The passion that furtively develops between themalong with Callies failure to developleads Callie to suspect that she is not like other girls. The explanation for this shocking state of affairs takes us out of suburbiaback before the Detroit race riots of 1967, before the rise of the Motor City, to 1922, when the Turks sacked Smyrna and Callies grandparents fled for their lives, back to a tiny village in Asia Minor where two lovers, and one rare genetic mutation, set in motion the metamorphosis that will turn Callie into a being both mythical and perfectly real: a hermaphrodite.Sprawling across eight decadesand one unusually awkward adolescenceJeffrey Eugenidess long-awaited second novel is a grand, utterly original fable of crossed bloodlines, the intricacies of gender, and the deep, untidy promptings of desire. It marks the fulfillment of a huge talent, named one of Americas best young novelists by both Granta and The New Yorker.

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Spanning across eight decades--and one unusually awkward adolescence - Jeffrey Eugenides' long-awaited second novel is a grand, utterly original fable of crossed bloodlines, the intricacies of gender, and the deep, untidy promptings of desire.

Customer Reviews:

Ruined my summer.......2007-09-18

I guess a Pulitzer Prize and being on Oprah's Book List does not make for a good book. I spent my entire summer trying to get through this book. Fianlly on Saturday, September 15th at 10:38 am, I finished.
I was not drawned into any of the characters, found that the narrative was all over the place, found that the descriptions were overwhelming and as far as being controversial, I don't even think that the author really touched on the subject but skirted the issue.
I was very disappointed!!!

Middlesex an awsome read.......2007-09-18

Middlesex was certainly a book that I could NOT put down after I began reading. First of all it is a very well writen book. It began stating the birth(s) of Cal and took you through her life. You could feel how she felt. Starting in Greece and ending on Middlesex, was a wonderful journey for the reader. I loved the writing so much of Eugenides, that I ordered his previously written book,(Virgin Suicides) and am waiting for his latest book to be printed. I would highly recommend this book to anyone.
E Morikis

Excellent writing on controversial topic.......2007-09-13

This might be the best written book I've ever read. I wouldn't recommend it for anyone who has trouble reading about modern sexual issues, however.

Una Mariavillosa Saga Familiar!.......2007-08-02

Este novela esta en el Club de Libros de Opprah. Y se gano el premio Pulitzer de Ficcion de 2003. Narra la saga familiar de un una familia de Asia Menor que llega a los Estados Unidos en busca de un mejor futuro.
La historia es narrada por un hombre que, siendo hermafrodita, vivio su juventud como una mujer hasta que su desarrollo sexual le indico lo contrario. Pero esto, como dijo Opprah en su programa, no debe hacer que nos alejemos del libro.
Es una maravillosa narracion en que vemos tres generaciones de una familia vistos con unos ojos sin prejuicios y limpios. Una saga familiar que nos envuelve y una vez que comienzas a leer no puedes parar.

Completely Unique--Breaks New Ground.......2007-07-20

"Middlesex" by Jefferey Eugenides is as unique as its protagonist, Cal/Calliope Stephanides, a hermaphrodite born a female, yet destined at puberty to express his underlying male nature.

It is easy to see why this book won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 2003. At once a sweeping rollicking comic epic family saga, this novel breaks new ground by successfully hybridizing different literary styles and throwing aside conventions of proper storytelling voice and construction. The novel is told primarily in first person. How else could Eugenides tell the tale of this endearing heroine/hero without resorting to awkward use of pronouns? But then comes the real breakthrough. How does the author take us into the minds of the supporting characters when the novel is narrated in first person? Eugenides solves this by making his narrator creatively omniscient. The reader is consciously aware at all times that it is Cal/Callie, the protagonist, that is stepping into the minds of his/her ancestors and immediate family to reveal their hidden feelings as she/he tells their tales in third person. It works! The storytelling comes alive on two levels: we better understand the motivations of the third-person characters, and we learn to treasure our creative, endearing, fully human storytelling protagonist. As a bonus, this construction often leaves the door wide open for outrageous comedy, and Eugenides makes full use of it.

The book mixes literary styles, too. It starts out almost like a fairy tale--a tragicomic Greek epic--with chorus, no less! Much of the next part of the novel is written in a 19th-century style. Finally, the novel transforms into a modern psychological coming-of-age tale. As the literary style transforms over the course of the novel, we progress from the stories of Cal/Callie's Greek ancestors through to the present day. Along the way, we are treated to a courageous Greek-American immigrant family saga as well as the story of Detroit from the Prohibition through to the present day. The story of Detroit is so vividly told that the city almost becomes a third character. In particular, we are brought into the alien worlds of early Ford assembly-line factory work, bootlegging prohibition gin-running and speakeasies, the birth of the Nation of Islam, the 1967 race riots, the rise of franchising wealth, and white flight to rich suburbs including sending children to private schools to avoid racial desegregation. All is so vividly recreated that the reader in transported.

At the heart of the novel is, of course, poor confused sweet child Callie/Cal. The story of her/his gradual awakening to sexual awareness, self-acceptance, and identity is profoundly touching, tastfully rendered, and ultimately very believable.

I loved this book. I did not want it to end; even after almost 600 pages, I wanted more.

The Hermaphrodite (Legacies of Nineteenth-Century American Women Writers)

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The Hermaphrodite (Legacies of Nineteenth-Century American Women Writers)
Julia Ward Howe
Manufacturer: University of Nebraska Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 080322415X

Book Description

Written in the 1840s and published here for the first time, Julia Ward Howe’s novel about a hermaphrodite is unlike anything of its time—or, in truth, of our own. Narrated by Laurence, who is raised and lives as a man, is loved by men and women alike, and can respond to neither, this unconventional story explores the understanding “that fervent hearts must borrow the disguise of art, if they would win the right to express, in any outward form, the internal fire that consumes them.” Laurence describes his repudiation by his family, his involvement with an attractive widow, his subsequent wanderings and eventual attachment to a sixteen-year-old boy, his own tutelage by a Roman nobleman and his sisters, and his ultimate reunion with his early love. His is a story unique in nineteenth-century American letters, at once a remarkable reflection of a largely hidden inner life and a richly imagined tale of coming of age at odds with one’s culture.

Howe wrote The Hermaphrodite when her own marriage was challenged by her husband’s affection for another man—and when prevailing notions regarding a woman’s appropriate role in patriarchal structures threatened Howe’s intellectual and emotional survival. The novel allowed Howe, and will now allow her readers, to occupy a speculative realm otherwise inaccessible in her historical moment.

In the Beginning Was the Worm: Finding the Secrets of Life in a Tiny Hermaphrodite

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Genetics from Small Beginnings
Little critters with big secrets
Worms and Heroes
Explaining Life at the Molecular Level

In the Beginning Was the Worm: Finding the Secrets of Life in a Tiny Hermaphrodite
Andrew Brown
Manufacturer: Columbia University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0231131461

Book Description

This is the story of how three men won the Nobel Prize for their research on the humble nematode worm C. elegans; how their extraordinary discovery led to the sequencing of the human genome; how a global multibillion-dollar industry was born; and how the mysteries of life were revealed in a tiny, brainless worm.

In 1998 the nematode worm -- perhaps the most intensively studied animal on earth -- was the first multicellular organism ever to have its genome sequenced and its DNA mapped and read. "When we understand the worm, we will understand life," predicted John Sulston, one of the three Nobel laureates, and his prediction proved astonishingly accurate. Four years later, the research that led to this extraordinary event garnered three scientists a Nobel Prize. Along with Robert Horvitz and Sydney Brenner, Sulston discovered the phenomenon of programmed cell death in the worm, an essential concept that explains how biological development occurs in animal life and, as Horvitz later showed, how it occurs in human life. C. elegans is about as simple as an animal can be, but understanding its genetic organization is helping to reveal the mechanisms of life and, by extension, the mechanisms of our own lives. In the Beginning Was the Worm shows that in order to unlock the secrets of the human genome we must first understand the worm.

But this story is about more than just the worm. It is about how an eccentric group of impassioned scientists toiled in near anonymity for years, driven only by a deep passion for knowledge and scientific discovery. It is the story of countless hours of research, immense ambition, and one of the greatest discoveries in human history.

Customer Reviews:

Genetics from Small Beginnings.......2006-11-22

Why do we grow old and die? Amazingly, after more than forty years of research, we still don't know the answers. This book charts the history of one branch of investigation into this thorny problem and does it with verve, style, and wit. In addition it is written with an admirable clarity that will enable non-specialists to grasp not only what was going on during the 30 years people have been studying c. elegans but also why it matters.

The main omission of the book concerns the fact that unlike complex eukaryotes such as reptiles and mammals our small wormy friend does not undergo cell division. Therefore cell-division-related loss-of-information theories about senescence clearly cannot explain why c. elegans lasts less than a month even under ideal conditions. In principle the fact that this non-dividing cellular system actually does grow old and die should teach us something very important about the mechanisms of aging, but alas we are little closer to understanding why these tiny creatures age than we were when the whole enterprise started with Brenner's initial investigations. It would presumably be very illuminating to contrast the all-too-mortal worm with immortal cancer cell lines; somewhere in there are surely the clues we need to get a better understanding of what it means to age.

But this book is a nice primer on the basic issues involved in the study of aging and as such is a welcome addition to the bookshelf.

Little critters with big secrets.......2006-09-23

The revelations about life promised when the structure of DNA was deduced weren't immediately obvious. In fact, the more investigations proceeded, it was obvious that intense study and analysis would be needed. The inheritance of traits, both physical and behavioural, is a difficult mesh to unravel. Research on single-celled organisms, like E. coli, offered only part of the answers. Even the long years of work with fruit flies only hinted at how genes made bodies and habits. An intermediate creature was needed in order to map out how the DNA did its job. That creature was the humble nematode, about as long as your fingernail is thick. In this highly informative book, Andrew Brown traces the years of study undertaken by scientists and technicians to cut away some of the unknowns to derive answers.

"Cut away" is suggestive. The earliest work required understanding how the worm was assembled by its genes. That effort entailed slicing the worm in bits to map all the interconnections. For a creature made of less than a thousand cells, its body proved anything but simple. One researcher spent three decades studying the vulva of this hermaphrodite. Another, a technician, learned the finesse required to section the nerves in order that the pathways the wires followed could be tracked. No end of complexity was revealed and some of it remains mysterious today. Brown credits childhood habits that contributed to the talents these researchers applied to worm analysis. The "nerve-cutter" did jigsaw puzzles, while another was one of those kids constantly taking things apart - and reassembling them - when he was young. In sharp contrast to today's research environment, Brown notes, these individuals remained individuals, untrammeled by bureaucracy and often working with little or no supervision or even contact with their colleagues. Their own dedication kept them at their tasks for extended periods - and usually extended hours.

Why go to such extreme lengths to examine such a minuscule creature? It was due to Sydney Brenner. Brenner, the son of an illiterate, entered university at age fourteen. When he graduated, Brown notes, Brenner remained too young for legal employment in a university. Research, however, was an open and inviting path. After casting about for the right creature, in the early 1960s he settled on "Caenorhabditis elegans" [say it to yourself quickly!] for detailed study. It was Brenner's vision that the information gleaned would lead to further insights into development and nervous systems - body building and behaviour. Although little was said of it at the time, the techniques would lead to how human behaviour roots would also be revealed.

After describing the details of the progress of the "C. elegans" research, Brown describes the growing interest in launching the Human Genome Project. Although nobody proposed slicing up humans to find out what made them tick, other methods were already being developed. Even mapping the simple worm had proven such a tedious task that when computers entered biology laboratories, Brenner and others made quick use of them. The merging of biology and research led to "the algorithm of the worm". Computer images made the mapping process easier for analysis. Databases of the generations of mutations led to better identification of which genes produced the changes. Although even today, some of these mutations remain to be tracked with detail or assurance. The worm, like much of life, retains mysteries demanding more work.

It was these computer methods that made the study of the human genome feasible. Various techniques arose to map the genome, some of them, such as Craig Venter's "skipping over" method, brought the picture of the human genome closer, if incomplete. They also led to the dispute over patenting genes. Brown notes how Brenner was an early dissenter against this practice. His objections led to a Britain versus the US dichotomy about where gene research should lead. There remains dispute over why Brenner was such a strenuous opponent. Whatever else the study of the little worm brought to biology, there is no doubt its rewards are highly significant. If nothing else, the awarding of three Nobel Prizes must be counted as great.

Brown's effort in researching this book, from delving into the literature to extensive interviews with the surviving participants, makes it worthwhile. There are several personal accounts of the time, which Brown fully acknowledges. He cites frequently the "Worm-Breeder's Gazette" which proved to be a unifying information exchange among the scattered scholars that emerged from the original studies. The "Gazette" tied together not only distant researchers, but the work of those who closely studied small aspects and had no other means of learning who was doing what in other laboratories. Brown's only shortcoming here is a rather patchy prose style. He also engages in some unnecessary repetition, giving the chapters the effect of a set of loosely-tied essays. A good Index - which this book thankfully contains - should have eliminated this approach. The other flaw, far more serious, is the total lack of graphic material. Photographs and diagrams would have made this book peerless. "In the Beginning" is a valuable book, but could have been first class with a bit more effort. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

Worms and Heroes.......2004-10-21

I have been following (from afar) the C. Elegans story for about thirty years. Once I was even motivated enough to try to isolate the worm from some soil so I could play around with it for myself. The attempt failed--I don't know why--but I never lost my vicarious interest in it. This is the first book that I've read that covers the story in a "behind the scenes" way, and I was glad to see it published.

The worm now, is of course, one of the best understood multicellular organisms in all of biology. How it came to be a model organism rivaling the mouse, the fruit fly, and man is an interesting lesson in how science at its best really works. It was a man, Sydney Brenner, with a plan to pick just the right organism that could be used to attack some of the fundamental questions of genetics, development and embryogenesis. The selection of this organism took several years of hard work. It is remarkable that during this start-up of the project, the funding organization, the MRC, supported the work without complaint, even though it was something like five years before publications began to roll out.

The book is written for a general audience, though there is lots here of interest to those who are more acquainted with biology too. The politics and personalities of the effort, now almost fifty years on, are covered in quite a bit of depth and some of it is pretty entertaining. The technical aspects of the research is also explained in enough detail that the reader can follow it pretty easily, though there are a few challenging rough spots too.

This is quite a tale of heroic science getting done with a conviction that unselfish, cooperative, non-commercial, basic research is not only worthwhile, but can be a lot of fun. And these guys clearly had a lot of fun. I think that one of the main reasons, pointed out by the author, was that the researchers were crammed in together with perhaps only a meter of bench space, and often not even a desk, had a lot to do with it. No closed doors, no power point, and no email probably had a lot to do with it too.

The book could have been better organized--the jumping around in time (what decade was this?) sometimes was bothersome to me. The portraits of the scientists were nice to see, but I'd have appreciated some drawings of the worm too. Pictures of the laboratory would have been instructive, I think.

Brown has done a quite respectable job with this book, and I think it is quite worth reading if you have any interest at all in biology or the history of science. The effort described will serve to confound the deconstructionists, mystics and other quacks of the academy for a long time to come.

Explaining Life at the Molecular Level.......2004-06-29

_Caenorhabditis elegans_, happily better known as _C. elegans_ and affectionately known by the researchers who study it as "the worm," would not seem to have potential for being the focus of groundbreaking biological studies. It is only a half a millimeter long, for instance, and is a lowly nematode, living on bacteria and slime mold in temperate regions all around the world. It does, however, display rapid growth and production of subsequent generations, which made it perfect for genetic studies, and transparency, which made it perfect for microscopic analysis. But even the original researchers on the worm would have been surprised at all the work that has been done in the last forty years. _C. elegans_ is now "the most completely understood animal in history." That assessment comes in _In the Beginning Was the Worm: Finding the Secrets of Life in a Tiny Hermaphrodite_ (Columbia University Press) by Andrew Brown. In fact, the worm looms even larger in biological research; work on its genetic map grew directly into the human genome mapping project. So its story is worth telling, and Brown, a science journalist, has told it largely through descriptions of the personalities and work of the main researchers. There is little technical detail here about the worm itself, but much interesting history about how the researchers came to understand it so well.

Chief of the characters is Sydney Brenner, who designated the worm as a fit source of research in the mid-1960s. Not everyone thought that the worm was the way to go, or even that trying to understand it at the molecular level was a promising avenue of research. There was more glamorous work and ostensibly more productive work going on researching fruit flies, for instance, but Brenner's team showed astonishing dedication. Almost everyone who worked in the lab came away happy, and Brenner and his main colleagues came away with Nobels. One of the most pleasing aspects of the research was how public it was. The researchers were in favor of free trade in ideas within the team, of course, but there was a high streak of idealism in sharing results with the outside world. They truly believed that the unfettered exercise of their talents was for the benefit of humanity. They insisted that sharing results (rather than, say, copyrighting or licensing them) meant it was more likely that someone would latch on to something interesting which needed further work. No one owned the genetic map they produced, and it was from the beginning available to all takers (although it is now much more accessible since biologists can log into it on the web). It is not just that free release is generous and right, but it works. John Sulston, one of the Nobel winners, said, "It was not a theoretical concept, it was a pragmatic way of moving forward."

Book Description

From the 16th to the 18th Century, hermaphrodites were discussed and depicted in a range of artistic, mythological, scientific, and erotic contexts. Early Modern Hermaphrodites looks at some of those representations to explore the stories they tell about ambiguous sex and gender in early modern England. Gilbert examines the often contradictory ways in which hermaphrodites were represented as both spiritual ideals and sexual grotesques; as freaks, erotic objects, and medical curiosities; and as literary metaphors and signs of social decay.

Hermaphrodites in Renaissance Europe (Women and Gender in the Early Modern World) (Women and Gender in the Early Modern World) (Women and Gender in the Early Modern World)

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Hermaphrodites in Renaissance Europe (Women and Gender in the Early Modern World) (Women and Gender in the Early Modern World) (Women and Gender in the Early Modern World)
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Manufacturer: Ashgate Publishing
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ASIN: 0754656098

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The Divine Hermaphrodite - Pamphlet
H. P. Blavatsky
Manufacturer: Kessinger Publishing, LLC
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 1428672230

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THIS 12 PAGE ARTICLE WAS EXTRACTED FROM THE BOOK: The Secret Doctrine: Synthesis of Science, Religion and Philosophy Part 3 , by H. P. Blavatsky. To purchase the entire book, please order ISBN 0766132080.

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Samuel Loveman
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Manufacturer: Denoël
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