PHYSICIAN: The Life of Paul Beeson

In this well-researched and laudatory biography, the author stresses his subject's commitment to the art of healing, which, he claims, has become less important with medicine's current reliance on technology. Beeson, born in 1908, learned the importance of listening to his patients both from observing his father, John Beeson, a gifted surgeon, and during his tenure as chief resident at Brigham Hospital at Harvard, where he worked under the legendary Soma Weiss, then physician-in-chief. Rapport, a neurosurgeon and essayist, describes his subject's outstanding career and explains an array of scientific information. Drawn to academic medicine rather than surgery, Beeson made his name as a clinical researcher and diagnostician. In addition to Brigham, he held prestigious positions at Emory University's and Yale University's medical schools. He also taught at Oxford and the University of Washington in Seattle. Infectious diseases were his specialty, and he has published widely. He is credited with establishing the link between blood transfusion and infectious hepatitis and discovering a class of cellular proteins called cytokines. A committed humanist, Beeson has devoted his later years to activism against nuclear proliferation and, with his wife, works for environmental issues. Although the author touches on many of the details of Beeson's life, including his childhood, marriage and nonmedical activities, the stilted prose fails to bring him to life. Photos not seen by PW. (Apr.)