Strange Medicine
Title | Strange Medicine PDF eBook |
Author | Nathan Belofsky |
Publisher | Penguin |
Pages | 226 |
Release | 2013-07-02 |
Genre | Science |
ISBN | 1101624582 |
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 throughout history, 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.
Bizarre Things We've Called Medicine
Title | Bizarre Things We've Called Medicine PDF eBook |
Author | Alicia Klepeis |
Publisher | Capstone |
Pages | 33 |
Release | 2016 |
Genre | Juvenile Nonfiction |
ISBN | 1491442662 |
"Introduces readers to some of the bizarre medical treatments humans have used throughout history"--
Bizarre Medicine
Title | Bizarre Medicine PDF eBook |
Author | Ruth Clifford Engs |
Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing USA |
Pages | 442 |
Release | 2022-01-11 |
Genre | Medical |
ISBN |
This encyclopedia explores historical and contemporary fringe remedies seen as strange, ridiculous, or even gruesome by modern Western medicine but which nevertheless played an important role in the history of medicine. From placing leeches on the neck to treat a cough to using crocodile dung to prevent pregnancy, a number of medical treatments that now seem unusual were once commonplace. While a few of these remedies may have been effective, most were either useless or actually counterproductive to good health. Even today, there are alternative and fringe treatments considered bizarre by mainstream medicine yet used by hundreds of thousands of people. Bizarre Medicine: Unusual Treatments and Practices through the Ages offers a fascinating look into the history of medicine. Entries are organized by disease or medical condition and explore the folk and traditional "cures" used to treat them. Explanations are provided for why some treatments may have worked and why others may have done more harm than good. In addition, entries provide a clear description of the causes, symptoms, and current treatment options for each condition based on current scientific understanding. Each entry also discusses the condition's enduring impact on society and the arts.
Bizarre Medicine
Title | Bizarre Medicine PDF eBook |
Author | John Joseph Micklos, Jr. |
Publisher | Capstone Press |
Pages | 49 |
Release | 2020-08 |
Genre | Juvenile Nonfiction |
ISBN | 1496690737 |
The field of medicine is fascinating. But some medical conditions, treatments, and experiments are almost unbelievable! Did you know workers test medications and medical equipment for bacteria by using a chemical from horseshoe crab blood? Have you ever heard of freezing people's bodies in the hopes of bringing them back to life in the future? Check out these fascinating findings and even more bizarre medicine!
A Cabinet of Medical Curiosities
Title | A Cabinet of Medical Curiosities PDF eBook |
Author | Jan Bondeson |
Publisher | Cornell University Press |
Pages | 276 |
Release | 2019-01-24 |
Genre | Medical |
ISBN | 1501733451 |
Long ago, curiosities were arranged in cabinets for display: a dried mermaid might be next to a giant's shinbone, the skeletons of conjoined twins beside an Egyptian mummy. In ten essays, Jan Bondeson brings a physician's diagnostic skills to various unexpected, gruesome, and extraordinary aspects of the history of medicine: spontaneous human combustion, colonies of snakes and frogs living in a person's stomach, kings and emperors devoured by lice, vicious tribes of tailed men, and the Two-Headed Boy of Bengal. Bondeson tells the story of Mary Toft, who gained notoriety in 1726 when she allegedly gave birth to seventeen rabbits. King George I, the Prince of Wales, and the court physicians attributed these monstrous births to a "maternal impression" because Mary had longed for a meal of rabbit while pregnant. Bondeson explains that the fallacy of maternal impressions, conspicuous in the novels of Goethe, Sir Walter Scott, and Charles Dickens, has ancient roots in Chinese and Babylonian manuscripts. Bondeson also presents the tragic case of Julia Pastrana, a Mexican Indian woman with thick hair growing over her body and a massive overgrowth of the gums that gave her a simian or ape-like appearance. Called the Ape Woman, she was exhibited all over the world. After her death in 1860, Julia's husband, who had also been her impresario, had her body mummified and continued to exhibit it throughout Europe. Bondeson tracked the mummy down and managed to diagnose Julia Pastrana's condition as the result of a rare genetic syndrome.
Bizarre Medicine
Title | Bizarre Medicine PDF eBook |
Author | John Micklos |
Publisher | |
Pages | 49 |
Release | 2020-08 |
Genre | Juvenile Nonfiction |
ISBN | 1496684826 |
"The field of medicine is fascinating. But some medical conditions, treatments, and experiments are almost unbelievable! Did you know workers test medications and medical equipment for bacteria by using a chemical from horseshoe crab blood? Have you ever heard of freezing people's bodies in the hopes of bringing them back to life in the future? Check out these fascinating findings and even more bizarre medicine!"--
Medicine's Strangest Cases
Title | Medicine's Strangest Cases PDF eBook |
Author | Michael O'Donnell |
Publisher | Portico |
Pages | 293 |
Release | 2016-04-04 |
Genre | Social Science |
ISBN | 1911042432 |
Medicine’s Strangest Cases is a choice prescription of weird and wonderful tales from the history of medicine, featuring the German doctor who fought a duel with a sausage, the Harley Street physician-turned-novelist who invented a disease – and its remedy – to keep his clients happy, and the quiet and cautious Swiss scientist who inadvertently unleashed LSD on the world. The stories in this book are bizarre, fascinating, hilarious, and, most importantly, true. Revised, redesigned and updated for 2016, this book is the perfect gift for medical students, clinicians, hypochondriacs and history fans. Laugh out loud and wince with sympathy with this rundown of the most bizarre medical cases ever. Word count: 45,000