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ABOUT THE BOOK:-
As we embark on excavating the history of kala-azar, one story keeps returning to our mind over and over again. This is about an extra terrestrial landing in the Jardin du Palais Royal, right in front of the Bibliothe’que Nationale in Paris. On entering the building, he sees so much information stored in one place that our extra-terrestrial decided to write the history of the city. As he browses through the stacks of books, he chances upon 227 volumes of Les Oeuvres Completes by Alexandre Dumas. Because of the immensity of this work, he believes that it must be the most authoritative source of information of Parisian history. He pulls out the most dog-eared (and hence most frequently consulted) volume and absorbs himself in Les Trois Mosquetaires. When he finishes, he concludes that the most important figures in the history of 17th century Paris were D’Artannan, Athos, Porthos, and Aramis, and that Richeliue and Louis XIII were only minor intriguants. He confirms this view in the next volume he pulls out. Upon his return to wherever he came from, he writes a History of Paris. The Three Musketeers come into vogue and everybody regards them as the most important forces behind the changing of events in the strange city on the banks of the Seine. Nobody realizes that the actual history of Paris may be completely different from the history descrbed in this book. In writing about kala-azar research we are in a similar situation to the extra-terrestrial in the Bibliothe’que Nationale. We have been confronted with countless volumes of information, but we chose a few at random. These we than used as a source on which the evolutinary history of Kala-azar research is based, What we describ here may be the tip of the iceberg and the actual situation may be much more complex and very different. This Anthology a catalogue of some of the original articles is essetnially a chronicle of great achievements, which seek to give a glimpse of the early history of Kala-azar research. Certainly one could address the question of why history is important. It reminds us of T.S. Eliot: “Time present and time post Are both perhaps present in time future? And time future contained in time past” The success stories of Kala-azar Research are full of remarkable events that we wish to share with others. For example the discovery of Leishmania donovani had to cross a bumpy ride. W.B. Leishman (BMJ 1903, 1:1252) and C.Donovan (BMJ 1903, 2:79) reported a new parasite at the turn of the century. To avoid any virulent controversy over priorities that might have broken out, Ronald Ross quickly and neatly christened the new genus Leishmania and the new species donovani (BMJ 1903, 2:1401). We have included their articles in this souvenir. On the chemotherapy of Kala-Azar, the discovery of urea stibamine by U.N Brahmachari is certainly a landmark. The work is a monument of labour and knowledge, amply rewarded by the clinical success it attained. The paper concerning the discovery was reported in Indian Med. Res (1922, 10:492).ISBN - 9788181892812
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