Table of Contents
Introduction 10
Ancient and Medieval Medicine Prehistory to 1600
A shaman to combat disease and death: Prehistoric medicine 18
A healer of one disease and no more: Ancient Egyptian medicine 20
The balance of the doshas is freedom from disease: Ayurvedic medicine 22
We rebuild what fortune has taken away: Plastic surgery 26
First, do no harm: Greek medicine 28
A body in balance: Traditional Chinese medicine 30
Nature itself is the best physician: Herbal medicine 36
To diagnose, one must observe and reason: Roman medicine 38
Know the causes of sickness and health: Islamic medicine 44
Learned, expert, ingenious, and able to adapt: Medieval medical schools and surgery 50
The vampire of medicine: Bloodletting and leeches 52
Wars have furthered the progress of the healing art: Battlefield medicine 53
The art of prescribing lies in nature: Pharmacy 54
Teach not from books but from dissections: Anatomy 60
The Scientific Body 1600-1820
The blood is driven into a round: Blood circulation 68
A disease known is half cured: Nosology 74
Hope of a good, speedy deliverance: Midwifery 76
The harvest of diseases reaped by workers: Occupational medicine 78
The peculiar circumstances of the patient: Case history 80
To restore the sick to health as speedily as possible: Hospitals 82
Great and unknown virtue in this fruit: Preventing scurvy 84
The bark of a tree is very efficacious: Aspirin 86
Surgery has become a science: Scientific surgery 88
The dangerously wounded must be tended first: Triage 90
A peculiarity in my vision: Color vision deficiency 91
No longer feared, but understood: Humane mental health care 92
Training the immune system: Vaccination 94
Like cures like: Homeopathy 102
To hear the beating of the heart: The stethoscope 103
Cells and Microbes 1820-1890
Let healthy blood leap into the sick man: Blood transfusion and blood groups 108
Soothing, quieting, and delightful beyond measure: Anesthesia 112
Wash your hands: Hygiene 118
Medicine needs men and women: Women in medicine 120
All cells come from cells: Histology 122
They mistook the smoke for the fire: Epidemiology 124
A hospital should do the sick no harm: Nursing and sanitation 128
Disturbances at the cellular level: Cellular pathology 134
Make yourselves masters of anatomy: Gray's Anatomy 136
One must replace the scarring tissue: Skin grafts 137
Life is at the mercy of these minute bodies: Germ theory 138
A genetic misprint: Inheritance and hereditary conditions 146
It is from particles that all the mischief arises: Antiseptics in surgery 148
The field of vital phenomena: Physiology 152
Defense against intruders: The immune system 154
A single mosquito bite is all it takes: Malaria 162
Vaccines, Serums, and Antibiotics 1890-1945
Solving the puzzle of cancer: Cancer therapy 168
The darker shadow of the bones: X-rays 176
Viruses are alpha predators: Virology 177
Dreams are the royal road to the unconscious: Psychoanalysis 178
It must be a chemical reflex: Hormones and endocrinology 184
The action currents of the heart: Electrocardiography 188
Strings of flashing and traveling sparks: The nervous system 190
A peculiar disease of the cerebral cortex: Alzheimer's disease 196
Magic bullets: Targeted drug delivery 198
Unknown substances essential for life: Vitamins and diet 200
An invisible, antagonistic microbe: Bacteriophages and phage therapy 204
A weakened form of the germ: Attenuated vaccines 206
To imitate the action of the pancreas: Diabetes and its treatment 210
No woman is free who does not own her body: Birth control 214
Marvelous mold that saves lives: Antibiotics 216
New windows into the brain: Electroencephalography 224
Silent disease can be found early: Cancer screening 226
Global Health 1945-1970
We defend everyone's right to health: The World Health Organization 232
The artificial kidney can save a life: Dialysis 234
Nature's dramatic antidote: Steroids and cortisone 236
The quietening effect: Lithium and bipolar disorder 240
A psychic penicillin: Chlorpromazine and antipsychotics 241
Changing the way you think: Behavioral and cognitive therapy 242
A new diagnostic dimension: Ultrasound 244
All the cells had 47 chromosomes: Chromosomes and Down syndrome 245
Death becomes life: Transplant surgery 246
A promising but unruly molecule: Interferon 254
A sensation for the patient: Pacemakers 255
The center of our immune response: Lymphocytes and lymphatics 256
The power to decide: Hormonal contraception 258
Asking for proof of safety: The FDA and thalidomide 259
A return to function: Orthopedic surgery 260
Smoking kills: Tobacco and lung cancer 266
Help to live until you die: Palliative care 268
Genes and Technology 1970 Onward
Randomize till it hurts: Evidence-based medicine 276
Seeing inside the body: MRI and medical scanning 278
Antibodies on demand: Monoclonal antibodies 282
Nature could not, so we did: In vitro fertilization 284
Victory over smallpox: Global eradication of disease 286
Our fate lies in our genes: Genetics and medicine 288
This is everybody's problem: HIV and autoimmune diseases 294
A revolution through the keyhole: Minimally invasive surgery 298
The first glimpse of our own instruction book: The Human Genome Project 299
Fixing a broken gene: Gene therapy 300
The power of light: Laser eye surgery 301
Hope for new therapies: Stem cell research 302
Smaller is better: Nanomedicine 304
The barriers of space and distance have collapsed: Robotics and telesurgery 305
Public health enemy number one: Pandemics 306
To reprogram a cell: Regenerative medicine 314
This is my new face: Face transplants 315
Directory 316
Glossary 324
Index 328
Quote Attributions 335
Acknowledgments 336
