Every week, Dr. Sydnee McElroy and her husband Justin amaze, amuse, and gross out (depending on the week) hundreds of thousands of avid listeners to their podcast, Sawbones. Consistently rated a top podcast on iTunes, with over 15 million total downloads, this rollicking journey through thousands of years of medical mishaps and miracles is not only hilarious but downright educational. While you may never even consider applying boiled weasel to your forehead (once the height of sophistication when it came to headache cures), you will almost certainly face some questionable medical advice in your everyday life (we’re looking at you, raw water!) and be better able to figure out if this is a miracle cure (it’s not) or a scam. Table of Contents: Part 1: The Unnerving The Resurrection Men Opium An Electrifying Experience Weight Loss Charcoal The Black Plague Pliny the Elder Erectile Dysfunction Spontaneous Combustion The Doctor Is In Trepanation Part II: The Gross Mummy Medicine Mercury The Guthole Bromance A Piece of Your Mind The Unkillable Phineas Gage Phrenology The Man Who Drank Poop Robert Liston Urine Luck! Radium Humorism The Doctor Is In The Straight Poop Part III: The Weird The Dancing Plague Curtis Howe Springer Smoke ’Em if You Got ëEm A Titanic Case of Nausea Arsenic Paracelsus Honey Self-Experimentation Homeopathy The Doctor Is In Part IV: The Awesome The Poison Squad Bloodletting Death by Chocolate John Harvey Kellogg Parrot Fever Detox Vinegar Polio Vaccine The Doctor Is In.

本作は、医学の歴史という厳格な題材を、人間の愚かさと好奇心のドラマとして再構築した知的な興奮に満ちた一冊です。凄惨な治療法の背後にある切実な願いを浮き彫りにする筆致は、不完全な知識の中で足掻き続けた人類の生々しい記録であり、科学が光を見出すまでの執念を物語る深い洞察に満ちています。 過去の誤ちを笑い飛ばしながらも、現代の欺瞞を見抜く知性を授けてくれる点に本書の真の価値があります。医学史という鏡を通じ、自らの脆さと真理へ近づこうとする勇気を再発見できるでしょう。これほどまでに残酷で愛おしく、そして啓蒙的な読書体験は他に類を見ません。