A doctor removes the normal, healthy side of a patient's brain instead of the malignant tumor. A man whose leg is scheduled for amputation wakes up to find his healthy leg removed. These recent examples are part of a history of medical disasters and embarrassments as old as the profession itself. In Brief History of Bad Medicine, Robert M. Youngson and Ian Schott have written the definitive account of medical mishap in modern and not-so- modern times. From famous quacks to curious forms of sexual healing, from blunders with the brain to drugs worse than the diseases they are intended to treat, the book reveals shamefully dangerous doctors, human guinea pigs, and the legendary surgeon who was himself a craven morphine addict. Exploring the line between the comical and the tragic, the honest mistake and the intentional crime, Brief History of Bad Medicine illustrates once and for all that you can't always trust the people in white coats.

本書は、医療という聖域が孕む「無謬性の神話」を鋭く解体する衝撃作です。白衣の権威に隠された誤診や奇行の記録は、単なる失敗談に留まりません。そこには、進歩の犠牲となった人々の悲劇と、人間の傲慢さが生む喜劇的な愚かさが濃密に描かれ、読者の倫理観を激しく揺さぶります。 著者は科学の闇を冷徹に見つめ、歴史に埋もれた「負の教訓」を鮮烈に蘇らせます。医学が救済であると同時に凶器へと変貌するパラドックスを突きつける本作は、常識の危うさを暴く至高の記録です。この残酷で真摯な人間模様の描写は、読者の知的好奇心を心地よく、かつ激しく刺激するでしょう。