Basic question of a non-specialist about the foundation of deseases.

[Brandstifter]

Hi,

I am computer scientist with a strong background on mathematics and logic. In Maths we have fundamental books like the "Principia Mathematica" from Russel, Whitehead which more or less acts as the foundation of modern mathematics. I am looking for such books for medicine, which a non-medicine can read and comprehend from the ground up. My first interest is the creation process of a disease caused by microbes and virus. As far as I know the Microbiology began with Pasteur and his postulates about microbes.

 

What books can you recommend?

 

P.S.: My native language is german, so books in german are also welcome.

Edited April 17, 2020 by Brandstifter

[CharonY]

There are not a lot of such fundamental literature as biology is a quickly evolving field. It is also a far less structured than mathematics, with research on various levels (say molecular vs physiological) having different levels of insights and so on. As such what can be recommended to be a good read may change. I think for beginners, medical microbiology books are usually the easiest to understand. They are a bit more superficial but one can understand them easier. I have heard good things about Basic Medical Microbiology from Patrick Murray. 

Understanding related mechanisms requires a solid foundation in molecular biology as well as cellular physiology, which is an additional field of study.

 

[PhilGeis]

As a German you should know Robert Koch, a contemporary of Pasteur, was much more the founder of medical microbiology both in describing the agents of disease and the accomplishments of his laboratory and students.  See Koch's postulates.  As you're interested in pathology, I'd not start with molecular biology but disease and their agents.  See latest ed. of Topley and Wilson's Microbiology and Microbial Diseases