Doctors: The Biography of Medicine, Issue 969How does medical science advance? Popular historians would have us believe that a few heroic individuals, possessing superhuman talents, lead an unselfish quest to better the human condition. But as renowned Yale surgeon and medical historian Sherwin B. Nuland shows in this brilliant collection of linked life portraits, the theory bears little resemblance to the truth. Through the centuries, the men and women Who have shaped the world of medicine have been not only very human people but also very much the products of their own times and places. Presenting compelling studies of great medical innovators and pioneers, Doctors gives us the extraordinary story of the development of modern medicine -- told through the lives of the physician-scientists whose deeds and determination paved the way. Ranging from the legendary Father of Medicine, Hippocrates, to Andreas Vesalius, whose Renaissance masterwork on anatomy offered invaluable new insight into the human body, to Helen Taussig, founder of pediatric cardiology and co-inventor of the original "blue baby" operation, here is a volume filled with the spirit of ideas and the thrill of discovery. Says The New York Times, "Doctors can be warmly recommended. Dr. Nuland succeeds in bringing his subjects vividly to life, and he leaves you with a much better understanding of what they achieved." "From the Trade Paperback edition. |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
Alfred Blalock Ambroise Paré American anatomy Andreas Vesalius anesthesia antisepsis artery autopsy became become began blood body called cardiac cause cells century clinical death described diagnosis discovery disease dissection doctor ether experiments Fabrica fact fever French friends Galen German Giovanni Morgagni Greek Halsted Halsted's healers healing heart Helen Taussig Hippocrates Hippocratic Hist Hospital human Ignac Semmelweis infection investigation John Hunter Johns Hopkins Joseph Lister laboratory Laennec later learned lecture Lister lived London lungs major medi medical school medical science medicine ment methods microscopic modern Morgagni Morton nature never nitrous oxide observations operation organs Paré's Paris pathological patient philosophy physicians physiology practice Professor René Laennec result Rudolf Virchow scientific scientists seems sick stethoscope surgeon surgery surgical symptoms teaching things thought tion tissues transplantation treatment University Vienna William Harvey William Stewart Halsted words wound writings wrote young