"The idea when we started was to collect the core Emergency Medicine information and present it in an abbreviated, succinct manner, useful to housestaff and medical students. As we progressed it became obvious that the very breadth of the specialty prevented any one person from accomplishing this task. It also became obvious that our specialty had advanced past the point where succinctness was possible. We peeled, boiled and pared, and came up with this. We hope you find it useful."
Severe acute respiratory syndrome, known as SARS, was first reported in Asia in 2003, after a Chinese-American businessman died from a mysterious illness. Soon, many of the people who had treated this man became sick with the same respiratory symptoms. SARS quickly spread across Southeast Asia and China, and caused widespread fear of a global epidemic when it reached Toronto, Canada. In all, more than 8,000 people became ill, and nearly 800 died. Although SARS was quickly contained, future outbreaks remain a threat.
Pater's graceful essays discuss the achievements of Botticelli, Leonardo, Michelangelo, and other artists. The book concludes with an uncompromising advocacy of hedonism, urging readers to experience life as fully as possible. His cry of "art for art's sake" became the manifesto of the Aesthetic Movement, and his assessments of Renaissance art have influenced generations of readers.
In the first half of the 19th century, some three million Irish emigrated to America, trading a ruling elite of Anglo-Irish Anglicans for one of WASPs. The Irish immigrants were (self-evidently) not Anglo-Saxon; most were not Protestant; and, as far as many of the nativists were concerned, they weren't white, either. Just how, in the years surrounding the Civil War, the Irish evolved from an oppressed, unwelcome social class to become part of a white racial class is the focus of Harvard lecturer Ignatiev's well-researched, intriguing although haphazardly structured book.
The origin of Rome is marked by the legend of the bickering brothers Romulus and Remus. The city was named for the prevailing brother, Romulus, and it flourished to become the origin of a powerful empire. Citizens of Rome became rich traders and landowners thanks to an organized agricultural system and prosperous trade, and mass migration from other nations began.
