Book Review Genes, Blood, and Courage: A boy called Immortal Sword By David G. Nathan. 276 pp. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press, 1995. $24.95. 0-674-34473-1

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Abstract
In 1925 Thomas Cooley and Pearl Lee described five children in Detroit as having what was then called von Jacsch's anemia, as well as a “peculiar mongoloid appearance, caused by enlargement of the cranial and facial bones, combined with the skin coloration” (A Series of Cases of Splenomegaly in Children, with Anemia and Peculiar Bone Changes. Transactions of the American Pediatric Society 1925;37:29). This condition was first called thalassemia in 1932, by George Whipple, and it has been a focus of hematologic and genetic research in the second half of this century. The six-year-old protagonist of Genes, Blood, and Courage is introduced with a similar description: “Dayem's skin was dark yet pasty, a result of his Syrian and Iranian lineage and severe anemia. His massive head . . . seemed barely supported by his frail neck and shoulders. His face was terribly misshapen.” The strength and beauty of this book come from the interweaving of Dayem's story from 1968 to the present with the medical and scientific struggles of his physician, David Nathan, Robert A. Stranahan Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, as he and his colleagues attempt to understand the pathophysiology and genetic basis of thalassemia and improve the medical care of those afflicted with this disorder.

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