Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers
by Mary Roach
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Book Summary Information
Author: Mary RoachEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2004-05
ISBN: 0393324826
Number of pages: 304
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780393324822
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Book Reviews of Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers
Book Review: Fantastic and Daring
Summary: 5 Stars
Mary Roach has put together an absolute masterpiece. Wow! What a page turner. Many rave over her wit and humor, which are cunning and entertaining, but the content of this book is fascinating. It is well-researched and masterfully done.
The opening chapter takes the reader into a continuing education course for facial plastic surgeons. The catch is that each physician is to practice new techniques on a dismembered cadaver head situated in an oven roasting pan. Needless to say, the book quickly draws you in.
Ms. Roach then offers a synopsis of the history of human dissection in medical curricula. Details of body snatching and the sale of pilfered cadavers to upstanding, otherwise law-abiding, members of the medical community illustrate the social constraints on the advancement of medical knowledge that permeated the world for centuries. Also covered is the body decay unit at the University of Tennessee. Some may have seen documentaries on this facility on TLC, Discovery Channel. The unit is home to decaying cadavers, some buried in shallow graves, others left out in the elements and some of the more unfortunate left to bask in trunks of cars. The unit serves as a source of specimens for ongoing forensic science research. A fascinating, but gruesome place. Details about the biochemistry and entomology of human decay are offered, but, believe it or not, with a light and tasteful touch.
Mary Roach was allowed to enter and observe experiments in a human cadaver crash test lab. Come to find out, crash dummies are only useful for registering and analyzing the forces rendered on the body during collisions of various types. Knowledge about how much impact various human body parts can endure must be gleaned from experimentation on dead humans. Cadavers are brought into the lab, instrumented with sensors and subjected to impact with various hammer wielding contraptions. It's gruesome, but very necessary research that enables auto-makers to improve safety standards on our automobiles. Another fascinating chapter covers the forensic investigations of airline crashes. By identifying bodies and reconciling the inventory of remains with seating charts for the unfortunate flights, forensic teams are able to ascertain an incredible amount of information about the causes of crashes. For example, bombs blow bodies apart, fires scorch skin etc. Human free fall experiments are also mentioned. These studies allow us to understand the specific anatomic effects of impact after freefall.
Cadaver use in military research is yet another topic covered. The efficiency and effects of weapons on human tissues are researched simply by testing weapons on corpses, strangely enough. Crucifixion experiments are also mentioned in which cadavers have been hung on crosses to analyze the effects of being nailed to a cross. A very morbid set of experiments involving live volunteers being fixed to crosses in a pathologist's garage are reviewed. I'll spare you the details (don't want to spoil all the fun).
A chapter on the history of live burial is also included. I have always found the topic intriguing - probably due to the horror I feel when imagining awakening six feet under.
A very fascinating review of experiments conducted on freshly decapitated (French execution victims) heads is offered. The tests were conducted to test the theory that the brain functions for a few seconds after the head is cut from the body. Unfortunately, the victim cannot vocalize his or her horror due to being detached from the source of vocalization, the lungs.
Cannibalism is covered as well as moribund ancient medicinal remedies consisting of human cadaver derived concoctions of all kinds, excrement included. I know it sounds horrific, but I couldn't stop reading.
The book ends with the history of funerary practices including interment, cremation and newer digestion and composting methods.
This book ventures into the taboo; however, innate human curiousity will prevent you from putting it down. You may feel a bit guilty at times, "My God I'm actually reading about human buttock dumplings being served at a Chinese restaurant".
Get it, you will not be disappointed.
Summary of Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers
"One of the funniest and most unusual books of the year....Gross, educational, and unexpectedly sidesplitting."?Entertainment Weekly
Stiff is an oddly compelling, often hilarious exploration of the strange lives of our bodies postmortem. For two thousand years, cadavers?some willingly, some unwittingly?have been involved in science's boldest strides and weirdest undertakings. They've tested France's first guillotines, ridden the NASA Space Shuttle, been crucified in a Parisian laboratory to test the authenticity of the Shroud of Turin, and helped solve the mystery of TWA Flight 800. For every new surgical procedure, from heart transplants to gender reassignment surgery, cadavers have been there alongside surgeons, making history in their quiet way.In this fascinating, ennobling account, Mary Roach visits the good deeds of cadavers over the centuries?from the anatomy labs and human-sourced pharmacies of medieval and nineteenth-century Europe to a human decay research facility in Tennessee, to a plastic surgery practice lab, to a Scandinavian funeral directors' conference on human composting. In her droll, inimitable voice, Roach tells the engrossing story of our bodies when we are no longer with them.
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