A review by rosenaughtin
Dr. Mütter's Marvels: A True Tale of Intrigue and Innovation at the Dawn of Modern Medicine by Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz

challenging dark informative slow-paced

3.0

I really wanted to love this book, but I was pretty disappointed. Dr. Mütter had a fascinating life, but instead of focussing on his surgical innovations and collection of gory medical marvels (as the title would suggest), 95% of this book was about the politics of medical colleges in Philidelphia. I got very little sense of who Mütter was as a person, other than he was charismatic and liked to dress ostentatiously, and his poor wife was mentioned exactly three times. There were way too many long quotes pulled from students and contemporaries and very little information on the actual technologies of the time. And other than the introduction, there was no mention of how he accumulated his collection that would later become the Mütter Museum. It made for a very boring read that left me wanting a lot more. 

Fun fact: Mütter added the umlaut to his name after studying in Paris, to make himself sound more European. I don't know why, I just find that hilarious.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings