Reviews with content warning for Blood - The Butchering Art: Joseph Lister’s Quest to Transform the Grisly World of Victorian Medicine

Reviews tagging 'Blood'

The Butchering Art: Joseph Lister’s Quest to Transform the Grisly World of Victorian Medicine by Lindsey Fitzharris

23 reviews

dragonterriers's review against another edition

dark funny informative medium-paced

5.0

incredibly informative yet witty and keeps you interested. if you’re into medical info, history, and the assorted shenanigans of those kooky ol’ victorians who could saw off a limb in 60 seconds or less but wouldn’t wash their hands or equipment between surgeries, this is an excellent read. feels almost like it should be semi-required reading for medical professionals to remember the often less-than-ethical ways that our current medical practices have developed, and how what we do now may be interpreted by the generations after us. very thought-provoking.

likely goes without saying, but there are detailed descriptions of surgery (some from the pre-ether/anesthesia days), medical procedures, and the less-than-ideal hospital ethos of the times. also some talk of animal experiments which unfortunately is unavoidable with much medical history, mostly fairly brief here but it is a recurring theme with a couple more in-depth descriptions.

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ceredonia's review against another edition

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dark informative slow-paced

2.0

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beepbeep101's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful informative inspiring medium-paced

5.0

Dr. Lindsey Fitzharris has become a must-read author for me. I read her second book, The Facemaker, first, which was one of the best books I read last year. I highly anticipate anything else she comes out with, should she publish more in the future!

Her writing reads, if not like fiction, as smoothly as a novel in most places. I grew up hearing medical terms around the dinner table, as my dad is a family physician, so I may have a head start on other readers - but there were few times that I had to stop to re-read a section or look up a term. Fitzharris defines concepts well for the layman. Most of the times I had to re-read anything were quotes using antiquated jargon.

I remember learning about pasteurization in school, and I, as many today, take for granted all of the antiseptic steps we go through today with even just treating scrapes. But learning about the process we went through to get there and about the lives of these individuals brings so much more perspective! I knew roughly the timeline for transitioning from miasma to germ theory, but reading in more detail about how we figured it out and the reactions of the medical community is fascinating and just….awe-inspiring.

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