Story of Medicine in 50 Discoveries
Regular price
€17.99
The 5,000-year-old Iceman discovered frozen in the Alps may have treated
his gallstones, Lyme disease, and hardening of the arteries with the 61
tattoos that covered his body—most of which matched acupuncture
points—and the walnut-sized pieces of fungus he carried on his belt. The
herbal medicines chamomile and yarrow have been found on
50,000-year-old teeth, and neatly bored holes in prehistoric skulls show
that Neolithic surgeons relieved pressure on the brain (or attempted to
release evil spirits) at least 10,000 years ago. From Mesopotamian
pharmaceuticals and Ancient Greek sleep therapy through midwifery,
amputation, bloodletting, Renaissance anatomy, bubonic plague, and
cholera to the discovery of germs, X-rays, DNA-based treatments and
modern prosthetics, the history of medicine is a wild ride through the
history of humankind.
Marguerite Vigliani, MD (Barrington, RI) is Clinical Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology a tthe Warren Alpert Medical School at Brown University. She has been a private solo OB/GYN practitioner for the last 36 years in Rhode Island, where she lives with her family. She has authored a number of medical case reports and clinical opinions for peer-reviewed journals, and she has taught medical students, residents, and fellows in OB/GYN. Gale Eaton has spent a lifetime with books for children and young adults, first as a children’s librarian at the Boston Public Library and the Berkshire Athenaeum, and later as a professor of children’s literature at the University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Library and Information Studies. She is the author of four other books. Phillip Hoose is the widely acclaimed author of books, essays, stories, songs, and articles including the National Book Award - and Newbery Honor - winning book Claudette Colvin: Twice toward Justice and the Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor winner The Boys Who Challenged Hitler: Knud Pedersen and the Churchill Club. A graduate of Indiana University and the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Sciences, Hoose was for 37 years a staff member of The Nature Conservancy, dedicated to preserving the plants, animals, and natural communities of the Earth.