000			02514cam a2200301 a 4500
001			052444
005			20231009193011.0
008			111115t19981996nyuab b 001 0 eng
010			_a96034252
020			_a9780375700736
050	0	0	_aRE921 _b.S23 1997
082	0	0	_a617.7 SAC
100	1		_aSacks, Oliver W.
240	1	0	_aIsland of the colorblind
245	1	4	_aThe island of the colorblind ; _b: and, Cycad island _c/ by Oliver Sacks
246	3		_aIsland of the colorblind ; and Cycad island
260			_aNew York _b: Vintage Books _b: Division of Random House _c, 1998.
300			_axxi, 311 p. _b: ill., maps _c; 22 cm.
504			_aIncludes bibliographical references (p. [269]-291) and index.
520			_aOliver Sacks has always been fascinated by islands--their remoteness, their mystery, above all the unique forms of life they harbor. For him, islands conjure up equally the romance of Melville and Stevenson, the adventure of Magellan and Cook, and the scientific wonder of Darwin and Wallace. Drawn to the tiny Pacific atoll of Pingelap by intriguing reports of an isolated community of islanders born totally color-blind, Sacks finds himself setting up a clinic in a one-room island dispensary, where he listens to these achromatopic islanders describe their colorless world in rich terms of pattern and tone, luminance and shadow. And on Guam, where he goes to investigate the puzzling neurodegenerative paralysis endemic there for a century, he becomes, for a brief time, an island neurologist, making house calls with his colleague John Steele, amid crowing cockerels, cycad jungles, and the remains of a colonial culture. The islands reawaken Sacks' lifelong passion for botany--in particular, for the primitive cycad trees, whose existence dates back to the Paleozoic--and the cycads are the starting point for an intensely personal reflection on the meaning of islands, the dissemination of species, the genesis of disease, and the nature of deep geologic time. Out of an unexpected journey, Sacks has woven an unforgettable narrative which immerses us in the romance of island life, and shares his own compelling vision of the complexities of being human. Copyright ® 2011 R.R. Bowker LLC. All Rights Reserved.
650		0	_aColor blindness _z--Caroline islands
650		0	_aParkinson's disease _z--Guam
650		0	_aDementia _z--Guam
650		0	_aAmyotropic lateral sclerosis _z--Guam
650		0	_aCycads _z--Guam
650		0	_aMedical anthropology
942			_cMO
999			_c255600 _d255600