The Mysteries Within: A Surgeon Explores Myth, Medicine, and the Human Body [Paperback]

Sherwin B. Nuland (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0684854872 | ISBN-13: 978-0684854878 | Publication Date: March 6, 2001 | Edition: 1

Dr. Sherwin Nuland, author of the National Book Award-winning How We Die, once again combines knowledge, compassion, and elegance of expression to shed light on the workings of our bodies from the perspective of a surgeon. Dr. Nuland recounts age-old legends about the functions and "personalities" of the body's organs and, in riveting vignettes of the surgery he has performed, he describes the connections between myth and reality. A brilliant blend of science and folklore, The Mysteries Within reveals the enigmas not only of the body but also of the human imagination.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Medicine has always contained elements of mythology and mysticism. Various ancient civilizations believed that the spleen and uterus moved around in the body when so motivated, that the heart was the center of thought and the liver the source of mood, and that internal organs were independent creatures with their own agendas. Dr. Sherwin Nuland, who has been performing surgery on these organs for four decades, here presents the amazing story of how superstition trumped science for most of medical history. For example, an early 17th-century Christian monk named Jean Baptiste van Helmont believed that the stomach was the center of human anatomy--the locus of the soul, in fact. His proof? That a punch to the stomach can knock a man out. "Had he been more pugilistically oriented, would he have placed it in the jaw?" Nuland asks.

Van Helmont's theories demonstrate the faulty logic that crippled medicine for most of human history. Human knowledge of anatomy began with observations of twitching organs on mortally wounded soldiers as they died on the battlefield, and for thousands of years couldn't move much past that. And even when a real scientific breakthrough occurred--as in the mid-18th century, when René Réaumur figured out that stomach acids, rather than compressive forces, were responsible for digestion--it had to be imbued with some sort of spiritual, supernatural component that overrode the science.

The problem, Nuland writes, is that the human mind seems to have an impulse to "turn instinctively toward mysticism when reason has no ready explanation for the mysteries still remaining in our biology." Elegantly and humorously, Nuland shows us how we came to understand the organs from which we've derived the strongest and strangest mythology--stomach, liver, heart, spleen, and uterus. After reading this book, you'll be able to smile appreciatively when someone expresses a "gut feeling" or relates how he "vented his spleen." --Lou Schuler --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

In this gracefully written study, bestselling surgeon and Yale professor Nuland (How We Die) takes a scalpel to centuries of folk beliefs, superstitions, myths and wishful thinking that have clung to modern Western medicine through its history. The ancient Greek belief (which persisted into the early modern era) that various internal organs impart distinctive personality traits through "humors" or circulating fluids is just one of many fallacies Nuland dissects. Plato and the early Church fathers also subscribed to the notion that, at birth, each individual is already completely formed in the seed of the father. Even after Anton van Leeuwenhoek's discovery of the sperm cell in 1674, "preformationists" rushed forward to claim that they had seen tiny men within the spermatozoa. Fear of bowel stasis and self-poisoning by stool--a recurrent theme throughout history--led to a plethora of unproven remedies ranging from high-colonic irrigations to the surgical removal of lengths of colon. In a selective tour of the human body focusing on just five organs--heart, stomach, liver, spleen, uterus--Nuland shows how, as medical science has advanced, it has slowly disentangled itself from preconception and irrationalism. He says these tendencies are still with us in today's alternative healing scene (homeopathy, reflexology, herbalism, Chinese medicine, etc.), which, he claims, embraces vague notions of immeasurable energies and life forces gone awry. The book's most interesting sections are Nuland's taut re-creations of his operating-room experiences--moving dramas that take us deep inside his patients' lives as well as their bodies--as he walks a tightrope between life and death. Agent, Glen Hartley, Writer's Representatives; 5-city tour
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster; 1 edition (March 6, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684854872
• ISBN-13: 978-0684854878
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #761,169 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

54 of 55 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not What I Expected, But Still Good, March 9, 2000

By 

P. O'Rourke "Patrick T. O'Rourke" (Highlands Ranch, CO United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Mysteries Within: A Surgeon Reflects on Medical Myths (Hardcover)

I come from a medical family (Dad, a surgeon; Mom, a nurse; Little Sister, a pediatrician). Unfortunately, I hit the limits of my scientific education in high school biology. So, I picked up this book in hopes that it would reveal some of the mysteries of their professions and give me some insight into the reasons why people treat often treat physicians as magicians.

Nuland's book doesn't strip away the mystique of the surgeon's work, nor does it really capture the nature of a modern surgical practice. Instead, it provides an overview of many of the structures that a surgeon encounters in his day to day work (stomach, spleen, liver, etc.) and describes the mythology that accompanies each organ. He also provides tales from his own cases about where these myths have broken down and ultimately posits that science should triumph over mythology.

Nuland tells a good story, both anecdotal and historical. His writing is clear, although he tends to use two words when one might do. The organzation of the book is clear and he does a fine job a translating medicine into layperson's terms.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good, but not nearly as compelling as How We Die or Live, March 15, 2000

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Mysteries Within: A Surgeon Reflects on Medical Myths (Hardcover)

Sherwin Nuland's first two books are among my favorites. His How We Live is a beautiful tribute to the mysteries of the human body and the promise and limits of medicine. His latest book is a disappointment in that regard. The cases aren't as compelling -- and the first case left me feeling that he had milked a family's ignorance for medicine's unnecessary aggrandizement. He packs a lot into the medical history sections, which can either make them breezy or thin. Overall, it's an interesting book, but start with his earlier works and you'll have a much richer reading experience.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thriller Mystery And Medical History, January 25, 2001

By 

taking a rest - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Mysteries Within: A Surgeon Reflects on Medical Myths (Hardcover)

This is a remarkable book written by a gifted surgeon, who wields a pen perhaps a touch less brilliantly than a scalpel. The only reason I say less, is that after reading one specific part of the book, I was overwhelmed with what can happen in an operating room. This is why I used the word thriller for the book, but other sections are as mysterious as Holmes versus Moriarty, and the historical perspective is brilliantly shared and summarized without losing the cadence of the book.

Dr. Nuland with his third work, "The Mysteries Within", brings a view of medicine unlike any I have read before. He takes you through a procedure that he claims brought dumb luck to the operating table for both he and his patient, luck that saved a life that was almost a guaranteed loss. He shares the inspiration that Residents and Interns bring with their youth, and calculated daring. Do you know what a bezoars is? I didn't until I read this book. And if the detective work that solved this enigma does not leave you marveling at just how wide and varied a surgeon's skills must be, I don't know what will. The example for you is perhaps in another section of the book.

He and the men and women he speaks of are remarkable, yet he always puts what is known and observable into relation with less tangible ideas. Whether it is religious faith, or faith in the Doctor or a pill, or hope in the unproven, he is never dismissive. The only intolerance he shows is for those who lack the openness of mind that welcomes all possibility, or deals in absolutes. His statements on religion and science and how they legitimately coexist, are not incongruous, and perhaps essential to each other, is stated as eloquently as I have ever heard the issue summarized.

It is rare person who can reach inside the ill, the broken bodies, and the lives that should end but do not. The pressure they operate under is explained, but I believe true understanding is left only for those who are the participants. Hopefully most will never need the skills and the "luck" that you will experience in this book. However in the event you or someone you care for does, hope that it will be a surgeon like this man, the men and women he learned from, or perhaps those he has taught.

Unconditionally recommended!