The Importance of Having a Brain: Tales from the History of Medicine

Navigate through the rich and delightful history of one of man's oldest of creeds - the medical profession (not the other, its less illustrious competitor). In this book you will read: Why do we call "smallpox" "small"? Was Julies Cesar called "Cesar" because he was delivered through a cesarean section? Who was the British clergymen that measured blood pressure for the first time, and the other whose discovery led to the developing aspirin? Why did a doctor in the early 20th Century exhibit premature babies in circuses, boardwalks, and country fares in U.S. cities? What led a 16th Century anatomist to discover that men and women have the same number of ribs? Why did a 19th Century Boston surgeon cry out "Gentlemen, this is no humbug!"? Why did a German psychiatrist intentionally inject blood from malaria patients into the arms of his psychiatry patients, and what was his reward for this brutal therapy? What disease killed more people in the 29th Century alone than all of century's battles, armed conflicts and wars combined? Why do we call "blood banks" blood banks? This book is the story of man and of one of his creeds: medical history in small doses.