Silent Enemies (1942)
"They Have Killed Many More Thousands of People Than Bombs and Bullets"
Hill, Justina. Silent Enemies. The Story of the Diseases of War and Their Control. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1942.
Octavo. Hardcover. 1st Edition.
First edition of Justina Hill's fascinating account of disease during World War II, from malaria to typhus, with information about the cutting-edge treatments of the 1940s. Written by the groundbreaking American bacteriologist, Justina Hill, this book carefully examines the disease-related perils of war in sections titled "Jungle Germs," "Out of the East," "Through Shot and Shell," "Air-Raid Shelters and Training Camps," "Filth Diseases," "The Control of Venereal Disease," and "Versatile Viruses." Hill's writings were critically important in a war that stood to be won or lost due to diseases like malaria and typhoid. In the aftermath of the war, her writings proved equally important to those trying to rehabilitate the vast numbers of refugees and concentration camp survivors. Book fine, dust jacket with a few tiny chips to extremities. A near-fine copy.