What enables science's great achievements? A common intuitive response might be “scientific reasoning, of course.” That might include, first, skepticism, even toward dogma. Add theoretical insights. Powerful predictions. The logic of testing. But perhaps this generally revered truism—another Sacred Bovine?—might be subject to critical reappraisal.
Consider our discoveries on the biology of snakebites. In the 1890s, nearly three thousand persons died annually in Brazil from encounters with venomous snakes. Many were illiterate immigrants working on coffee plantations or building the railroads that would help transport the coffee. Few doctors were available in rural areas, and they could only treat the symptoms, not counteract the poisons. Workers relied primarily on local healers with their spectrum of herbal remedies. But were any of them truly effective? How could science contribute to solving this important health problem?
Young physician Vital Brazil Mineiro da Campanha (Figure 1) saw the challenge first-hand. With...
University of California Press