In 1890, a scientist from Germany named Robert Koch believed he had discovered a treatment for tuberculosis, a substance originating from the bacterium responsible for the infection, which he named Tuberculin. Although his substance did not actually cure anyone, it ultimately became widely adopted as a diagnostic skin test. Koch’s notable failure is just one of the many intriguing stories highlighted in Dead Ends! Flukes, Flops, and Failures that Sparked Medical Marvels, a new illustrated nonfiction book for children by science historian Lindsey Fitzharris and her cartoonist husband, Adrian Teal.
A prominent science communicator with an interest in the medically unsettling, Fitzharris authored a biography of surgical innovator Joseph Lister, The Butchering Art, published in 2017—a fascinating, though sometimes gruesome, read. She later followed this with 2022’s The Facemaker: A Visionary Surgeon’s Battle to Mend the Disfigured Soldiers of World War I, which chronicles the work of WWI surgeon Harold Gillies who reconstructed the faces of injured soldiers.
In 2020, she was the host of a documentary for the Smithsonian Channel titled The Curious Life and Death Of…, which examined notable deaths, including those of drug lord Pablo Escobar and magician Harry Houdini. Fitzharris conducted virtual autopsies, analyzed blood samples, talked to witnesses, and performed live demonstrations to uncover new perspectives. Meanwhile, Teal is a celebrated caricaturist and illustrator, best recognized for his contributions to the British TV series Spitting Image. His illustrations have also been featured in The Guardian and the Sunday Telegraph, among other publications.
The duo chose to work together on children’s books to merge their unique talents. Fitzharris shared with Ars, “[The market for] children’s nonfiction is very challenging. It doesn’t tend to perform well overall. It’s quite tough to get publishers interested in it. It’s unfortunate because I truly believe there’s a demand for it, particularly when I see children engaging with these books enthusiastically. There’s also a necessary gap to fill given the decline in literacy rates. We have to find ways to get people more interested in these subjects beyond a 30-second clip on TikTok.”
Their initial venture into this realm was 2023’s Plague-Busters! Medicine’s Battles with History’s Deadliest Diseases, discussing “the most grotesque ailments that have plagued humanity and influenced civilizations through the years”—in addition to the medical innovations that arose to fight those illnesses. Dead Ends serves as somewhat of a sequel, this time delving into historical diagnoses, trials, and treatments that were at best ineffective, often deleterious, but eventually resulted in unforeseen medical advances.
