I am almost done with reading Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers and let me tell you, it is fascinating!
Definitely recommended, but not while you're eating your lunch or anything involving tomatoes or meat.
It covers the history of using cadavers for medical dissection, including those rascally radicals who wanted to learn anatomy so badly that they would hire graverobbers to bring them fresh bodies to work on. Some doctors in the 17th and 18th century would even dissect their recently deceased relatives they were so hard up for cadavers.
Some of the stories of early surgeries will make you scream and cover your mouth and thank the Lord that we live in the 21st century...with anesthesia.
You can learn about forensic science and all the clever little things they learn from cadavers. Also, I will not repeat the foods and medicines that ancient peoples concocted with parts from cadavers. (Really quite disgusting.)
And right now I'm reading about funeral rites, cremation, and a woman in Sweden who wants to use bodies as compost!
Fascinating, but absolutely not for the squeamish. Jason didn't appreciate some of the stories while he was eating his lunch. (But let me say that when he wasn't eating, he thought they were very interesting.)
Currently reading: La Bella Figura: A Field Guide to the Italian Mind by Beppe Severgnini
2 comments:
Your choice of reading is, well, interesting.
Seriously, it's really really really interesting!
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