Product Description

In the first expose of unjust medical experimentation since David Rothman's Willowbrook's Wars, Allen M. Hornblum releases devastating stories from within the walls of Philadelphia's Holmesburg Prison. For more than two decades, from the mid-1950s through the mid-1970s, inmates were used, in exchange for a few dollars, as guinea pigs in a host of medical experiments.

An array of doctors, in conjunction with the University of Pennsylvania and prison officials, established Holmesburg as a laboratory testing ground. Hundreds of prisoners were used to test products from facial creams to far more hazardous, even potentially lethal, substances such chemical warfare agents.

Based on in-depth interviews with dozens of prisoners as well as the doctors and prison officials who performed or enforced these experimental tests, Hornblum paints a disturbing portrait of abuse, moral indifference, and greed. Central to this account are the millions of dollars many of America's leading drug and consumer goods companies made available for the all too eager doctors seeking fame and fortune through their medical experiments.

Acres of Skin is rigorously researched and shocking in its depiction of men treated as laboratory animals.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #587679 in Books
• Published on: 1999-05
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

From Library Journal
Relying on prisoners' firsthand reports, Hornblum (urban studies, Temple Univ.) has written a thorough account of the questionable medical experimentation carried out in Philadelphia's Holmesburg Prison from the mid-1940s to 1974. Research on everything from cosmetics to chemical warfare agents was conducted there, often with minimal or no record keeping. Such research raises serious ethical issues. Throughout, Hornblum asks whether prisoners can give informed consent, particularly when the potential consequences of the research are not fully explained. Although most of the book centers on Holmesburg, Hornblum does cite other prisons across the country where similar practices took place before they received widespread condemnation in the 1970s. What is shocking about this is that it did not happen in the distant past but in our own generation, with the doctors involved still in practice. Frighteningly, Hornblum reveals that at the Nuremberg trials Nazi doctors cited American prison practices as a defense for their nefarious medical experiments in the camps. Essential for students of medical ethics.AEric D. Albright, Duke Medical Ctr. Lib., Durham, NC
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Thanks in good part to the Freedom of Information Act (and many interviews, too), Hornblum tells the story of medical experiments, ended in 1974, on prisoners in a Philadelphia prison. Most of the experiments involved the effects of chemicals on the skin (hence the title), but they also included military trials, stopped in 1966, of LSD and other mind-altering drugs. Dermatologist Albert M. Kligman and those prison administrators who knew about the experiments always claimed that no prisoners were coerced, informed consent was required, and any prisoner could withdraw from any experiment at any time. Hornblum punches holes in each of those statements. He compares some of the experiments with those of Nazi doctors during World War II, showing how, in one case, a Nazi physician apparently saved his life by describing some of the U.S. prison experiments to the judges in the Nuremberg trials. A low-keyed but devastating picture of U.S. medical experimentation and the men, educational institutions, and drug companies that carried it out. William Beatty

Review
"A recently released expose has sparked new interest in this controversial chapter of American medical history." -- Village Voice

"Hornblum's book is awesome, revealing the sanctimonious venality of American medicine...Excellent! Highly recommended." -- Choice

Hornblum delineates the contours of the injustice in fine detail. . . In recent years historians of science and medicine have turned their attention to the paradox of American research practices involving human subjects in the wake of Nuremburg. This book is a welcome empirical contribution to the ongoing scholarly discussion. --M. Susan Lindee for Isis: Journal of the History of Science Society, Vol. 91, No, 2, June 2000.
This admirably comprehensive story of the use of prisoners for medical research is embarrassingly painful to read . . . This encyclopedic, well-documented treatise . . . is a fascinating story. -- Journal of the American Medical Association
Hornblum's book is awesome, revealing the sanctimonious venality of American medicine . . . Excellent! Highly recommended. -- Choice
A recently released expose has sparked new interest in this controversial chapter of American medical history. -- Village Voice
A startling new book. -- Philadelphia Tribune
Acres of Skin is a harrowing, searing journey into the ways in which we prey upon the weak and defenseless in the supposed name of medical advancement. The fact that these human experiments were sanctioned and condoned by one of the most prestigious universities in the world only makes this true story all the more remarkable and disturbing. -- Buzz Bissinger, author of A Prayer for the City and Friday Night Lights
Hornblum has written a highly effective expose. -- Publishers Weekly
Devastating picture of US medical experimentation and the men, educational institutions, and drug companies that carried it out. -- Booklist
A thorough account of the questionable medical experimentation carried out in Philadelphia's Holmesburg Prison from the mid-1940s to 1974. . . . Essential for students of medical ethics. -- Library Journal
Hornblum has masterfully retold this tale. -- The Philadelphia Inquirer
AllenHornblum's Acres of Skin does for Holmesburg what David Rothman's Willowbrook's Wars and James Jones' Bad Blood did for Tuskegee. Each shows how the authority of science has been used to effect officially sanctioned exploitation of the vulnerable. Part of the tragedy is that we must wait decades for its public exposure. -- John Kleinig, Director of the Institute for Criminal Justice Ethics, John Jay College for Criminal Justice
Acres of Skin is painful to read, but it must be read--not only for its historical significance but also for what it can still teach us about the conduct of medical research in the contemporary world. For Allen M. Hornblum's compelling account of what transpired within Holmesburg prison is, sadly, only a chapter in an ongoing story. -- Jay Katz, M.D., Elizabeth K. Dollard Professor Emeritus of Law, Medicine, and Psychiatry, Yale Law School
Acres of Skin is a powerful and impassioned expose of the dark side of American medicine. Most damning is Hornblum's documentation of the callous indifference of prison authorities, politicians, the U.S. Military, and the so-called watchdogs of the medical profession to the hideous and dangerous experiments performed by physicians who violated their sacred oath to heal, not harm, their patients. A most important book. -- Sheldon Harris, author of Factories of Death
The book really gives the reader an in-depth account of the back-alley medical practices/experiments that were taking place at the prison. It brings forth the truth. -- Leodus Jones, former Holmesburg Prison inmate
A compelling account of how in the 1960s and early 1970s government and privately funded researchers took advantage of prisoners' susceptibility to promises of easy money or early release in exchange for the prisoners' willingness to serve as human subjects in research. -- T. Howard Stone, Medical Humanities Review
This work is written with compassion and makes a significant contribution to social medical history and the history of science through its scholarship as well a through its call for social justice. -- Theresa Richardson, Canadian Journal of History, April 2001

Hornblum delineates the contours of the injustice in fine detail. . . In recent years historians of science and medicine have turned their attention to the paradox of American research practices involving human subjects in the wake of Nuremburg. This book is a welcome empirical contribution to the ongoing scholarly discussion. --M. Susan Lindee for Isis: Journal of the History of Science Society, Vol. 91, No, 2, June 2000.
This admirably comprehensive story of the use of prisoners for medical research is embarrassingly painful to read . . . This encyclopedic, well-documented treatise . . . is a fascinating story. -- Journal of the American Medical Association
Hornblums book is awesome, revealing the sanctimonious venality of American medicine . . . Excellent! Highly recommended. -- Choice
A recently released expose has sparked new interest in this controversial chapter of American medical history. -- Village Voice
A startling new book. -- Philadelphia Tribune
Acres of Skin is a harrowing, searing journey into the ways in which we prey upon the weak and defenseless in the supposed name of medical advancement. The fact that these human experiments were sanctioned and condoned by one of the most prestigious universities in the world only makes this true story all the more remarkable and disturbing. -- Buzz Bissinger, author of A Prayer for the City and Friday Night Lights
Hornblum has written a highly effective expose. -- Publishers Weekly
Devastating picture of US medical experimentation and the men, educational institutions, and drug companies that carried it out. -- Booklist
A thorough account of the questionable medical experimentation carried out in Philadelphias Holmesburg Prison from the mid-1940s to 1974. . . . Essential for students of medical ethics. -- Library Journal
Hornblum has masterfully retold this tale. -- The Philadelphia Inquirer
Allen Hornblums Acres of Skin does for Holmesburg what David Rothmans Willowbrooks Wars and James Jones Bad Blood did for Tuskegee. Each shows how the authority of science has been used to effect officially sanctioned exploitation of the vulnerable. Part of the tragedy is that we must wait decades for its public exposure. -- John Kleinig, Director of the Institute for Criminal Justice Ethics, John Jay College for Criminal Justice
Acres of Skin is painful to read, but it must be read--not only for its historical significance but also for what it can still teach us about the conduct of medical research in the contemporary world. For Allen M. Hornblums compelling account of what transpired within Holmesburg prison is, sadly, only a chapter in an ongoing story. -- Jay Katz, M.D., Elizabeth K. Dollard Professor Emeritus of Law, Medicine, and Psychiatry, Yale Law School
Acres of Skin is a powerful and impassioned expose of the dark side of American medicine. Most damning is Hornblums documentation of the callous indifference of prison authorities, politicians, the U.S. Military, and the so-called watchdogs of the medical profession to the hideous and dangerous experiments performed by physicians who violated their sacred oath to heal, not harm, their patients. A most important book. -- Sheldon Harris, author of Factories of Death
The book really gives the reader an in-depth account of the back-alley medical practices/experiments that were taking place at the prison. It brings forth the truth. -- Leodus Jones, former Holmesburg Prison inmate
A compelling account of how in the 1960s and early 1970s government and privately funded researchers took advantage of prisoners susceptibility to promises of easy money or early release in exchange for the prisoners willingness to serve as human subjects in research. -- T. Howard Stone, Medical Humanities Review
This work is written with compassion and makes a significant contribution to social medical history and the history of science through its scholarship as well a through its call for social justice. -- Theresa Richardson, Canadian Journal of History, April 2001

Customer Reviews

Yet another national disgrace.
Perpetrator of these atrocities, University of Pennsylvania's "Dr." Albert Kligman, is the second physician in FDA history to be barred from experimenting on human subjects. Both Retin-A and Renova are derivatives of skin hardening chemicals he concocted at Holmesburg Prison. This merciless freak experimented on hospitalized retarded children and helpless elderly patients as well. Never apologized to his tortured victims or their families.

I am permanently boycotting Retin-A, Renova, Johnson & Johnson and Dow Chemical. U. Penn will never get a dime from me either. All of them continue to profit greatly from wanton destruction of human lives.

New York Times is wrong: very solid book.
I looked up the negative New York Times book review to see what Higbie's problem was. She thinks Hornblum is biased because he supports "prison reform." The book sticks quite close to the issue of medical experiments in prison, which must be at the very least something in prison in need of "reform". Higbie is also offended by the comparison to Nazi medical practices. But that's not exaggeration by Hornblum. As the book relates, the Nazi doctors at Nuremberg successfully avoided the death penalty by arguing that their own pointless torture experiments were similar to that conducted by U.S. doctors in U.S. prisons.

It's an excellent book. The book focuses on the specific prison, but has a lengthy chapter on experiments on prisoners throughout the U.S.

My only real criticism is the optimistic ending of chapter 3 that the FDA banned prisoner experimentation in the 1980s. As far as I can tell, the regulation was suspended at passage and then repealed in 1997. Fifty years after Nuremberg, experiments on prisoners unable to give informed consent continues.

IT'S A VERY TRUE STORY MY FATHER WAS ONE OF THOSE EXPERMINTS
ACRES OF SKIN IS A VERY TRUE STORY I'M SO GLAD MR. HORNBLUM FINALLY GOT THE TRUTH OUT ABOUT OUR MEDICAL AND INSTUTIONS ONE OF THOSE HORRID EXPERMINTS WAS GOING ON AT THE OHIO STATE PEN.MY FATHER WAS ONE OF THE FIRST THERE.HE IS NOW DECEASED AND I BLAME OUR STATE AND MEDICAL FACILITIES.