Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Blood and Guts: A History of Surgery
    Blood and Guts: A History of Surgery
    Blood and Guts: A History of Surgery
    Ebook332 pages5 hours

    Blood and Guts: A History of Surgery

    By Richard Hollingham

    4.5/5

    ()

    Switch to audiobook
    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Today, astonishing surgical breakthroughs are making limb transplants, face transplants, and a host of other previously un dreamed of operations possible. But getting here has not been a simple story of medical progress. In Blood and Guts, veteran science writer Richard Hollingham weaves a compelling narrative from the key moments in surgical history. We have a ringside seat in the operating theater of University College Hospital in London as world-renowned Victorian surgeon Robert Liston performs a remarkable amputation in thirty seconds—from first cut to final stitch. Innovations such as Joseph Lister's antiseptic technique, the first open-heart surgery, and Walter Freeman's lobotomy operations, among other breakthroughs, are brought to life in these pages in vivid detail. This is popular science writing at it's best.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Publishers
    Release dateDec 8, 2009
    ISBN9781429987325

    Related to Blood and Guts

    Related ebooks

    Science & Mathematics For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Ad And Subtract

      Jan 30, 2022

      Hopefully, in the interests of balance, Michael Horton will also place a full-page advertisement in a forthcoming Listener that compares the death rates of New Zealand and the other, more-welcoming countries he mentions in his ad (Listener, January 2

      9 min read

    • Article

      Operation Fail

      Feb 14, 2020

      Operation Fail
      9 min read

    • Article

      RAPID RESPONSE How The Stop The Bleed Program Is Preparing St. Louisans To Save Lives

      Dec 27, 2022

      I'M SITTING IN what is perhaps the most diverse classroom in St. Louis. My fellow classmates are all different ages—I'm next to ayoung couple with a 1-year-old—and races. But we're not meeting at a university. I'm at the Delmar Divine, where a group

      4 min read

    • Article

      A Cardiologist’s 9/11 Story

      Sep 13, 2018

      The morgue was inside Brooks Brothers. I was standing at the corner of Church and Dey, right next to the rubble of the World Trade Center, when a policeman shouted that doctors were needed at the menswear emporium inside the building at One Liberty P

      14 min read

    • Article

      CPR Can Be Lifesaving For Some, Futile For Others. Here's What Makes The Difference

      Dec 12, 2023

      If someone young and healthy collapses, the treatment is a no-brainer. As we age or suffer serious health problems, there may come a point where it would do more harm than good.

      6 min read

    • Article

      Everything You Wanted To Know About The History Of Medicine

      Jan 21, 2021

      Q: What would you say are the three biggest turning points in the history of medicine? A: Every historian will have different thoughts on this, but I would say inoculation for smallpox, which made its way to Europe and the US in the 18th century. T

      6 min read

    • Article

      We’re Still Stanging

      Oct 6, 2022

      We’re Still Stanging
      2 min read

    • Article

      A Nobel Mission

      Dec 1, 2018

      A Nobel Mission
      5 min read

    • Article

      Making it BETTER

      Dec 2, 2021

      Making it BETTER
      2 min read

    • Article

      The End Of Life On Earth?

      Jan 23, 2018

      The End Of Life On Earth?
      11 min read

    • Article

      Doctor Doesn’t Know Best

      May 25, 2023

      “THAT EXPLAINS THE BARNEY!” EXCLAIMED the taxi driver taking me from Kerry airport to a conference in late April in Killarney, a popular Irish tourist destination. The previous day had been unusually busy because my conference coincided with another,

      5 min read

    • Article

      Bridging The Gap Between Neuroscience And Neurology

      Aug 11, 2019

      Each year in New Zealand, more than 9000 people will suffer a stroke. If treated using the Endovascular Clot Retrieval method, many of them could return home unharmed – provided they get medical attention quickly. Around six hours following a stroke,

      2 min read

    • Article

      Dr Ronx

      Oct 6, 2021

      Dr Ronx
      2 min read

    • Article

      Beyond Crack 'N' Crunch

      Nov 26, 2023

      Beyond Crack 'N' Crunch
      8 min read

    • Article

      The Big One

      Dec 1, 2020

      The Big One
      12 min read

    • Article

      What’s up, Doc?

      Mar 20, 2022

      What’s up, Doc?
      12 min read

    • Article

      Go With The Flow

      Dec 1, 2020

      Go With The Flow
      7 min read

    • Article

      When The Fingers FAIL

      Sep 23, 2022

      When The Fingers FAIL
      8 min read

    • Article

      Go With The Flow

      Oct 30, 2020

      Go With The Flow
      7 min read

    • Article

      Change For The Better

      Apr 23, 2023

      Change For The Better
      7 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Blood and Guts

    4.5/5

    13 ratings1 review

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      A superb very readable introduction into a complex subject. By no means exhaustative, but then it makes pains to ensure that this is understood, focusing instead on five branches of surgery: Cardiac, transplant, trauma, plastic & neurosurgery. It starts well, and uses vignettes to illustrate key points & problems facing the surgical pioneers in each field. In places, I think that non medics might find it gruesome but it is very readable & fascinatingly written. the author clearly has a talent for evoking a time & a place, and that adds to the feel of what is very well written first person history. The bibliography could have been longer, and it would have been nice to know where to find more about Harken, Gillies and the rest, but that is only a minor complaint. Well recommended to all, even the non medic, but especially those with an interest in the human condition

    Book preview

    Blood and Guts - Richard Hollingham

    Enjoying the preview?
    Page 1 of 1