With Humanities Highlights, Himmelfarb staff aims to spotlight useful books from our Humanities collection. This week, we’re showcasing “The Knife Man: Blood, Body Snatching, and the Birth of Modern Surgery” by Beth Macy.
About the Book: “The Knife Man” is a biography of maverick surgeon, “John Hunter:” the father of scientific surgery. Moore deep-dives into the murky depths of pre-enlightenment surgery and the (sometimes sketchy, sometimes shadowy) birth of modern surgical practice.
Reasons to Read: If you enjoy reading about quacky medicine (bloodletting for every possible ailment), want to reinforce your gratitude for the 21st century (anesthetics!), or feel intrigued by sentences like, “Excitedly, he hurried the limb up to his attic” (Moore, 2005, p. 11).
Reasons to Avoid: If you’re squeamish about rotting bodies (and physicians tasting them . . .), excising bullets with grime encrusted tools, cauldrons to boil down skeletons, bladder stones “the size of tennis balls” (p. 46), or grisly accounts of gonorrhea (one Georgian aristocrat had “at least” 19 bouts) (p.128).
Fun Facts:
- Among many other firsts, John Hunter was the first person to successfully practice artificial insemination, way back in the 1770s (Ombelet and Robays, 2015).
- John Hunter’s eclectic manor formed the basis for Robert Louis Stevenson’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. With his wide involvement in grave robbing rings, it’s not hard to imagine. (John Hunter Left a Body of Work Behind Him, 2019).
References:
John Hunter Left a Body of Work Behind Him. (Oct. 4th, 2019). Scottish Field.
Moore, Wendy. (2005). The Knife Man. Crown.
Ombelet, W., & Robays, J. Van. (2015). Artificial insemination history: hurdles and milestones. Facts Views
Vis Obgyn, 7(2): 137–143. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4498171/#:~:text=John%20Hunter%20wrote%20the%20first,the%20founder%20of%20scientific%20surgery%E2%80%9D.
Wilson, T. C., “The dissecting room,” OnView, accessed October 17,
2023, https://collections.countway.harvard.edu/onview/items/show/13559.
