Medical Curiosities : A Miscellany of Medical Oddities, Horrors and Humors [Paperback]

Robert Youngson (Author), R. M. Youngson (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0786704322 | ISBN-13: 978-0786704323 | Publication Date: July 1997 | Edition: 1

Laced with a delicate (and occasionally indelicate) humour, this book is for anyone with a taste for the bizarre, the exotic and the preposterous. It is also a rich source of fascinating scientific lore and medical information: therapies involving bacon rashers, toads and other odd items; bizarre ailments such as fishy odour syndrome, priapism and colonic crunch; remarkable feats of the human body, including clearing a blockage with a snake, brandy as a cure for rabies, imaginative forms of self-immolation and the mother-to-be who gave herself a Caesarean; operations ranging from catastrophic to successful-but-totally-improvised; nightmares from the past such as quack cures, bleeding and purging, and amazing medical ideas about sex; the weird and sometimes wildly misdiagnosed symptoms produced by illnesses both physical and psychological; and the stranger cases of the medical profession, including fraudsters, fantasists, body-snatchers and those suffering from 'intellectual deficit'.

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Carroll & Graf Publishers; 1 edition (July 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786704322
• ISBN-13: 978-0786704323
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,814,066 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A Disappointment, May 10, 2001

By 

"thenightnurse" (United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Medical Curiosities : A Miscellany of Medical Oddities, Horrors and Humors (Paperback)

I thought this book would be just my cup of tea, as I am an aficionado of medical curiosities, but this is the dullest book, of this type, that I have ever read. I regret buying this book

3 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Hmm... Rather strange..., November 25, 2000

By 

Chiron (....) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Medical Curiosities : A Miscellany of Medical Oddities, Horrors and Humors (Paperback)

Well, Mr. Youngston obviously spent a lengthy amount of time researching this book. It's evident from page one, when he sheds light on a little known and often misunderstood topic; that being the medical history. In this book he clearly shows that much of what we think in terms of medical advancement is lacking.

From the onset, and all the way through, this is an exercise in material that will make your jaw drop in surprise. The strange things the human race has done in the name of science is quite astounding in this context- or in any context for that matter.

If you thought modern doctors were full of it, just wait until you see this! I'm actually considering calling my doctor and thanking him for not being like this- though I suppose that statement is overdoing it a bit, but I remind you- it's just a LITTLE bit.

Entertaining, sometimes shocking, occasionally funny- this is quite a book!