“As most of you know, at least I hope you do by now :) I read a lot of medical history books and, given the title, I think you can guess that Blood and Guts is no exception.
It's a small book and given I purchased it new from Amazon, I was a bit put off by its small size, but what it lacked in size, it had in information.
Roy Porter manages to highlight the important bits of medical history and put it into perspective. He done good.
The history is mostly western, though he might have mentioned a few doctors and scientists from the far east (as a note, non-western medicine is always skipped over and I would think that the medical historians would have righted this wrong by now), and covers the important bits breaking up his narrative into chapters such as Disease, Doctors and Hospitals.
The writing is light and airy and I mean that in a positive sense. Too many medical history authors feel it necessary to burden the reader with ponderous prose. If I wanted to be bored to death, I'd read a text book. He also covers in great depth, the medical systems of Britian, Canada and America -- so those of you who live in those aforementioned places will have a point of reference.
I've already published one quote from the book here. And this is my second favorite quote:
The Beveridge Report on Social Insurance and Allied Services (1942) declared war on the 'five giants' threatening society: Want, Ignorance, Disease, Squalor, and Idleness.
I asked Dafydd about the Idleness and he pointed out that society has always had disdain for slackers. You shouldn't just be hanging around, but doing something.
Sounds reasonable to me. :)
This is a good book for anyone who has a casual interest in medical history. It's chock full of historical drawings and Roy prose, as I've mentioned, is easy to read.
Four Big Toby Paws. I was surprised how much I enjoyed it.”
