Thomas Morris (5)

An entertaining collection of various medical oddities and reports generally from the 16th through 19th centuries. Many appear credible while others are fanciful, yet in general all make for an easy and interesting read.

While there is some discussion of the assumed basis for the often erroneous conclusions, perhaps an opportunity was missed as more thorough analyses could have been informative and not merely entertaining.

On the downside, there is no narrative flow to this work it is as it is little more than a random compilation.… (meer)

Readers looking for pop science in the style of Mary Roach will be disappointed in this one.

Morris has cobbled together miscellaneous reports from medical journals and other publications over a roughly 200 year span from the mid 1600s to the mid 1800s. They range from ick-inducing to unlikely and mostly make the reader happy to not have to endure the "cures" of the era. He mostly lacks Roach's sassy humor, and after a while the parade of insults to the human body just begin to get bland, with an occasional side trip into TMI about self-mutilation.

Feel free to pass this one up.… (meer)