A Cabinet of Medical Curiosities
by Jan Bondeson
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Book Summary Information
Author: Jan BondesonEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 1999-04-01
ISBN: 0393318923
Number of pages: 250
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Book Reviews of A Cabinet of Medical Curiosities
Book Review: Well researched but a difficult read at times
Summary: 3 Stars
The book is very well researched, however , it is not something you can sit in your armchair and enjoy reading. There is a lot of minute detail , particularly with names and dates.
I was expecting more discussion about the medical side of things, but most was a historical account of events. Eventually I had to skip a few of the chapters that did not seem interesting.
Summary of A Cabinet of Medical Curiosities
In this book of amazing oddities, Jan Bondeson explores unexpected, gruesome, and bizarre aspects of the history of medicine. He regales us with stories of spontaneous human combustion; vicious tribes of tailed men; the Two-Headed Boy of Bengal; Mary Toft, who allegedly gave birth to seventeen rabbits; and Julia Pastrana, exhibited around the world as the Ape Woman. Bondeson combines an historian's skill in showing us our timeless fascination with the grotesque with a physician's diagnostic abilities, as he examines the evidence and provides likely explanations for these peculiar events.The history of medicine is a tale of human attempts to understand, explain, and predict the workings of nature. Sometimes those attempts can take strange turns, as Jan Bondeson shows in this diverting collection of medical oddments. A Cabinet of Medical Curiosities takes in matters such as stomach-dwelling snakes, not-unjustified fears of being buried alive, gigantism, lice-borne diseases, spontaneous combustion, and assorted monstrosities. Bondeson, a London-based medical researcher, combs out-of-the-way archives to populate his essays with strange case studies, among them the story of the California Indian Julia Pastrana, "a normal, intelligent woman of gentle disposition" who, owing to her unfortunate werewolf-like appearance, spent much of her life as a circus freak. Bondeson retells Pastrana's tragic tale, and many others, with sympathy and imagination.
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