Strange medicine : a shocking history of real medical practices through the ages / Nathan Belofsky.
Material type:
TextPublisher: New York, New York : Penguin Group, 2013Edition: First editionDescription: viii, 213 pages ; 21 cmContent type: - text
- unmediated
- volume
- 0399159959 (pbk.)
- 9780399159954 (pbk.)
| Item type | Home library | Collection | Call number | Materials specified | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item holds | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Adult Book
|
Main Library | NonFiction | 610.9 B452 | Available | 33111007455641 |
Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
Discover the astonishing and peculiar history of medicine with this perfect gift for history buffs, doctors, and anyone looking to be amazed by the brilliant and bizarre ideas that shaped the world of medicine as we know it.
From the use of electric eels in ancient Egypt to medieval dentists burning candles to combat invisible worms, this book uncovers the weirdest medical practices throughouthistory, highlighting the most dubious ideas, strangest treatments, and biggest blunders. Entertaining, shocking, and sometimes stomach-turning, Strange Medicine presents strange but true facts and an honor roll of doctors, scientists, and dreamers who inadvertently turned the clock of medicine backward.
Did you know-
. Renaissance physicians timed surgical procedures according to the position of the stars?
. Blood from beheadings was believed to cure epilepsy?
. Dr. Walter Freeman, the world's foremost practitioner of lobotomies, practiced his craft while traveling on family camping trips, hammering ice picks into the eye sockets of his patients in between hikes in the woods?
Strange Medicine is an illuminating panorama of medical history as you've never seen it before.
"A Perigee Book."
Includes bibliographical references (pages 179-199) and index.
Growing pains -- Medicine's dark ages -- The "Renaissance" -- The age of heroic medicine.
Belofsky casts a gimlet eye on the practice of medicine through the ages and highlights the most dubious ideas, bizarre treatments, and biggest blunders.