"In 1890, a German scientist named Robert Koch thought he'd invented a cure for tuberculosis, a substance derived from the infecting bacterium itself that he dubbed Tuberculin. His substance didn't actually cure anyone, but it was eventually widely used as a diagnostic skin test. Koch's successful failure is just one of the many colorful cases featured in Dead Ends! Flukes, Flops, and Failures that Sparked Medical Marvels, a new nonfiction illustrated children's book by science historian Lindsey Fitzharris and her husband, cartoonist Adrian Teal."
"She followed up with 2022's The Facemaker: A Visionary Surgeon's Battle to Mend the Disfigured Soldiers of World War I, about a WWI surgeon named Harold Gillies who rebuilt the faces of injured soldiers. And in 2020, she hosted a documentary for the Smithsonian Channel, The Curious Life and Death Of..., exploring famous deaths, ranging from drug lord Pablo Escobar to magician Harry Houdini. Fitzharris performed virtual autopsies, experimented with blood samples, interviewed witnesses, and conducted real-time demonstrations in hopes of gleaning fresh insights."
Robert Koch created Tuberculin in 1890, a bacterium-derived substance that failed to cure tuberculosis but became a widely used diagnostic skin test. That case appears in Dead Ends!, an illustrated children's nonfiction book by Lindsey Fitzharris and Adrian Teal. Lindsey Fitzharris is a science historian who wrote The Butchering Art and The Facemaker and hosted the 2020 Smithsonian Channel documentary The Curious Life and Death Of..., performing virtual autopsies and experiments. Adrian Teal is a caricaturist and illustrator known for Spitting Image. The couple collaborated to combine historical storytelling and cartoon illustration. Fitzharris said the children's nonfiction market is difficult and often faces publisher reluctance.
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