Great Discoveries in Medicine

William F. Bynum, Helen Bynum

Thames & Hudson, Limited, 2011 - Medical - 304 pages

Sickness and health, birth and death, disease and cure: medicine and our understanding of the workings of our bodies and minds are an inextricable part of how we know who we are.

In this inspiring compendium, distinguished experts from around the world explain medicine's turning points and conceptual changes, and answer a series of key questions: How did the Plague influence the course of human history? What should complementary medicine's role be? How did an audacious self-experiment lead to a cure for stomach ulcers and a Nobel Prize?

The book is magnificently illustrated with a unique array of pictures, from beautiful Renaissance anatomical drawings to the very latest computer- generated images of viruses and photographs that reveal the hidden world within our bodies.

Topics includehumors & pneumas, Islamic medicine, pathological anatomy, neuron theory, bedlam & beyond, parasites & vectors, hormones,the genetic revolution, defibrillators, the endoscope, medical robots,typhus, tuberculosis, smallpox, HIV, and more.

What people are saying

Review: Great Discoveries in Medicine

User Review  - Publishers Weekly vol. 258 iss. 46 p.

The Bynums, co-authors of the Dictionary of Medical Biography, have compiled a fascinating volume in which they explore the long history of medicine, with past and present seamlessly combined in each ...

Review: Great Discoveries in Medicine

User Review  - Don O'goodreader - Goodreads

For a change of pace: a coffee table book, 70 enthusiastic essays, lavishly illustrated, with tidbits like: "skirts were shorten to avoid picking up germs." Everything is covered, except maybe clean ...

About the author

William Bynum is Professor Emeritus of the History of Medicine at University College London and has been associated with the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine for more than thirty-five years.

Helen Bynum lectured in medical history at the University of Liverpool and is now a freelance editor, writer, and lecturer. She is coeditor with William Bynum of the award-winning Dictionary of Medical Biography.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Great Discoveries in Medicine
• Editors: William F. Bynum, Helen Bynum
• Contributor: William F. Bynum
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: Thames & Hudson, Limited, 2011
• ISBN: 0500251800, 9780500251805
• Length: 304 pages
• Subjects: History / General; Medical / History; Science / General