Title: The Mystery of the Exploding Teeth: And Other Curiosities from the History of Medicine
Author: Thomas Morris
Genre: Nonfiction, adult, medical science
Publication date: October 2018
Published by: Dutton
Source: Purchased hardcover
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Synopsis: A mysterious epidemic of dental explosions,
A teenage boy who got his wick stuck in a candlestick
A remarkable woman who, like a human fountain, spurted urine from virtually every orifice
These are just a few of the anecdotal gems that have until now lain undiscovered in medical journals for centuries. This fascinating collection of historical curiosities explores some of the strangest cases that have perplexed doctors across the world.
From seventeenth-century Holland to Tsarist Russia, from rural Canada to a whaler in the Pacific, many are monuments to human stupidity – such as the sailor who swallowed dozens of penknives to amuse his shipmates, or the chemistry student who in 1850 arrived at a hospital in New York with his penis trapped inside a bottle, having unwisely decided to relieve himself into a vessel containing highly reactive potassium. Others demonstrate exceptional surgical ingenuity long before the advent of anaesthesia – such as a daring nineteenth-century operation to remove a metal fragment from beneath a conscious patient’s heart. We also hear of the weird, often hilarious remedies employed by physicians of yore – from crow’s vomit to port-wine enemas – the hazards of such everyday objects as cucumbers and false teeth, and miraculous recovery from apparently terminal injuries.
Medicine has improved almost beyond recognition in the past few centuries, but some things never change. The human capacity for mischief, misadventure and downright idiocy is apparently a trait that progress cannot eradicate.
This book was wild. It went into some strange illnesses, the weirdest foreign objects in bodies that you could imagine, sketchy remedies that were worse than the actual disease/injury, remarkable recoveries, and other strange medical cases. As I kept reading this book, there was one trend I noticed:
A significant proportion of the strangest medical cases on record fall neatly into a category we might call "unbelievably stupid things done by young men."
Why is this so true? 😂 There was this one dude who swallowed all the knives on the ship he was on, and I just... WHY? I mean, I know why, I read the book. Lol. But it was so dumb! And speaking of sharp objects in places they shouldn’t be, there was this one poor girl who had 400 needles removed from all over her body.
But the commentary on this particular case made me cackle...
Not until the era of punk would so many dodgy piercings again be seen on a single human body.
I really enjoyed this book! The cases were insane but very interesting. I learned a lot, like how the four humors (which is such a dumb theory looking back at it with the modern knowledge we have now) each had a different personality to go along with them, and how the ✨art✨ of bloodletting was learned from hippos...?
Yeah, I don’t even know what people were thinking. Lol. Except that they loved bloodletting! Lol.
I’m telling you, this book was wild! If there is one quote from the book I could use to describe this book, it would be this one:
Look, this is getting ridiculous. But wait, there's more.
Basically, this entire book 😂 But I enjoyed it! It did get gory at times and I just...
And I’m a nurse 😂 In my defense, I do great in real-world scenarios. Open heart surgeries? Been there. It was a great learning experience. Births? Assisted in a couple during my OB rotation in nursing school and I didn’t bat an eye. Body fluids? Fine. I deal with them on a daily basis. But reading about this stuff? I’m not gonna lie it got me 😂
But overall I did like this book! One thing I liked was that the book included many excerpts from old medical journals... But I also kinda hated them at the same time because these were old medical journals (from, like, the 1800s) so they read very dry and boring at times. It was hard to read at times without my eyes glazing over, but I did appreciate how well the author explained things and made it fun. If this is a subject that interests you, I definitely recommend it! Just watch out for those blech descriptions and dry excerpts 😅 That being said, I would definitely like to read some of this author's other books!
Sounds like it has interesting examples, but maybe was slower because of the old medical journal parts? Still, very much would be maybe a fun documentary or something made from it? Great review!
ReplyDeleteLisa Loves Literature
I enjoyed it despite the dry parts. It was a very intriguing read for sure.
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