The Knife Man: Blood, Body Snatching, and the Birth of Modern Surgery

Fascinating, and frequently gruesome, story of the man who more or less singlehandedly revolutionized surgery and medicine. John Hunter refused to accept the traditional style of surgery, which was apparently to cut while reading the instructions from classical medical men - Galen and Hippocrates, both of whom worked on theory more than fact. Hunter insisted on observing what was actually going on in the body - which meant graverobbing to get corpses to autopsy, among other things. He also dissected every type of animal he could get his hands on, including many exotics brought back by explorers or out of various (mostly private) zoos. According to Wendy Moore, he perceived the same relationships among animals (including Man) that Darwin show more did some sixty years later - but a combination of religious limitations on publication and the actions of his assistant, who took all his papers and apparently destroyed a good many, kept his discoveries from being known. It's a biography, so it has a sad ending; in this case, the ending is also really annoying, as said assistant did his best to wreck everything Hunter had created. It's an illuminating look at a person and a situation I knew little about. I hope Moore has written and will write more books. show less

A thoroughly readable, meticulously detailed biography of a crucial figure in the development of modern medicine who remains relatively unknown outside the medical profession. While Moore makes a strong case that Hunter's contributions to surgery, anatomy, biology, and paleontology were under-appreciated both in his time and ours, his lack of name recognition might also be blamed on the fact that his career, unlike those of, say, Pasteur or Jenner, cannot be summed by a single invention or idea. Moore gets around this problem by painting a fascinating picture of the social and medical scene that Hunter worked in. In "The Knife Man," we learn a great deal about dissection lectures, body snatching, medical politics, and the primitive, show more painful, and gruesome state of medicine in the eighteenth century. This isn't a book for the squeamish, and, in its forthright descriptions of surgeries performed without anesthetics or antiseptics will probably be too much for some readers. Meanwhile, its descriptions what might be politely termed the anatomical supply industry tips Moore's subject into the surreal – the fight for the bones of Charles Byrne, an eighteenth century oddity known as "the Irish Giant," seems right out of a Hollywood farce. In this sense, "The Knife Man" makes an interesting companion volume to Mary Roach's "Stiff," the important difference being that most of cadavers that Roach met with had agreed to donate their bodies to science while alive.

Moore also does an excellent job of bringing John Hunter himself to life in the pages of "The Knife Man." He comes across as an enormous personality – difficult, tireless, endlessly curious, and always on the lookout for another preserved body part or worthwhile experiment. The engaging portrait of Hunter that Moore paints in "The Knife Man" is all the more remarkable for the fact that most of his personal papers seem to have been destroyed after his death. In a sense, In a sense, it's Hunter's spirit that might be his greatest contribution to modern medicine. He loved to experiment, to teach, and to collect, but while many of contemporaries owned "cabinets of curiosities," his collecting seemed to be driven not by a taste for the lurid and unusual but for a genuine appreciation of life in all of its forms and varieties. For this, Moore names him one of Darwin's precursors. I don't know enough about any of this to comment on that, but in "The Knife Man," she convinced me that John Hunter read the "book of nature" as well as, and as enthusiastically as, any scientist who ever lived. show less

What a character! I truly enjoyed discovering the biography of such a man as, his accomplishments and insights into so many medical fields are absolutely amazing. I still can't believe one man alone could be such an astounding forerunner -from anatomy to surgery, dentistry and else!

What's more, John Hunter's curiosity, bizarre interests and incredible ability to think outside the box led him, not only to blaze paths in many medical fields but, also, to foresee evolution as a Darwin would later describe it (well, nearly!)! About, the pages dedicated here to his collection (the now fascinating Hunterian Museum in London) are a marvel, Wendy Moore managing to convey beautifully in words the ideas, bold and dangerous at the time, that show more Hunter wanted to convey through the very particular display of his items -skulls of humans and monkeys put side by side, freaks of nature showing an innate ability for organisms to mutate, striking similarities between different species of animals and plants hinting at common ancestors etc. You picture it: Hunter's way of thinking, coupled with his morbid and strange interests, was so far ahead it's amazing!

More, this biography is not only a fascinating read for its subject -an hard working, original, incredible and eccentric genius- but, for the whole picture the author brings to us. It is indeed a great snapshot of Georgian society, its ethic and moral, from the teaching of medicine and, social inequalities and their impact on medical practices, to the Resurectionits and their dirty but useful and necessary deeds.

It also manages to put each topic in perspective -for instance by retelling the history of the sicknesses and medical fields discussed, in a simple but very relevant and straightforward way. Thus, beyond the life of a brilliant and colourful man, we have here the beautiful portrait of a time where science in its practice (and medicine in particular) was at a crucial crossroad. Linking it all in such a manner (John Hunter, his time and how he changed so many things) Wendy Moore has done a fantastic job. The whole is a great read, broad and instructive, from beginning to end.

A stunning page-turner. show less

In the middle of the 18th century, surgery was still a gruesome practice. Bloodletting and induced vomiting were standard procedures for all manners of ailments. But, like in all the sciences, one practitioner decided to upend convention and actually study the field from the ground up, asking basic questions and looking for observable phenomena. Wendy Moore’s The Knife Man chronicles the life of John Hunter, a doctor from rural Scotland who would almost single-handedly set right the world of surgery and change medicine for the better.

Hunter’s life (1728 – 1793) was full of fun and fantastical experiences. When most people just took the teachings of Galen at face value, he studied the anatomy of corpses dug from graveyards (a crime show more in those days) to further his understanding. He prepared his own specimens (which his brother then profited from) for teaching classes. His laboratory inspired the famous tale of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. He even acquired the skeleton of the seven-foot-seven Irish giant Charles Byrne to learn more about it. He worked with Edward Jenner (inventor of the small pox vaccine), compiled the first study of the human fetal development, and woefully used himself as a guinea pig for research on venereal diseases. Needless to say, the man did a lot to contribute to his field.

Moore’s writing is breezy, filled with fun anecdotes, and interesting to boot. The book may seem daunting when you first pick it up, but it reads quickly. She includes a fair amount of background history and science to flesh out the biography. Hunter seems very deserving of his statue in Leicester Square after reading this one. A thick but delightful book. show less

John Hunter rose from a poor Scottish farming family to become one of the leading men of science and medicine. His courage (he inserted a knife's point covered in pus into his urethra to see if syphilis and gonorrhea were the same disease! omg!), his lack of hypocrisy (in an age when even surgeons, who relied on dissections, refused to let their bodies be disturbed, he actually requested an autopsy), and his clear-sighted reliance on evidence instead of assumptions and tradition helped him transform surgery and natural sciences. From a farm boy with an unfashionable accent he became the chosen surgeon of such luminaries as Lord Byron, Benjamin Franklin, and William Pitt the Younger. Unfortunately, he poured all his money into creating show more an incredible natural history museum, so upon his death his family was left destitute. Additionally, his brother-in-law stole his papers in order to steal his ideas and ensure that Home, not Hunter, got the glory of the discoveries.

Moore weaves together the zeitgeist and scientific theories of the time with the facts of Hunter's extraordinary life. His story is fascinating, and her writing is lucid and energetic. show less

This was a bit of an interesting read that takes you back into the late 1700's and headfirst into the medical fields where surgery is starting to emerge from the barbers as a more prestigious field. And in the middle of this transition into scientific thinking and experiments and modern surgery is John Hunter.

The book was a lot denser than I would have expected just because there was so much information that didn't read as easily as a story would. But that is to be expected because it really is hard to condense a person's life into so many pages. It went from experiment to discovery and back to experiments with bits of John Hunter's life to connect them all. Which was fascinating when I cared about the experiment or didn't realize that show more Hunter had a hand in a discovery. But at times, it bogged down a bit and I just didn't care about some fantastical freak or strange exotic animal called the giraffe.

But the experiments were quite fascinating, and sometimes the name-dropping was interesting. Such as the knowledge that Hunter treated Lord Bryon, or his writing on whale anatomy would inspire the book Moby-Dick, or that he was the one to use vivid dyes to highlight veins and blood flow, or that he managed to be the first to understand human embryology by dissecting a pregnant lady, etc.

There were so many ethical issues! So many of his experiments would NOT have gone down in modern times. Stealing someone's dead body despite their last will? Pulling teeth from impoverished kids to implant into wealthy nobles? Digging up cadavers, injecting himself with syphilis and gonorrhea for an experiment, etc. My goodness!

But one very interesting thing that I kept noticing throughout the book was how there are still similarities from the late 1700's in modern medicine. Things like publication wars, differing opinions of certain surgeries, the lack of respect between different scientific professions, the disagreement between religion and science, the use of connections to get ahead... I can see a lot of it in the present world as well.

I found myself a little distracted with the title of the chapters because they weren't always exactly relevant to the central theme of that chapter.

Really, it was all very fascinating and quite cohesive, following a chronological flow.

Two and a half stars rounded up to three because it was a good read and I'm glad I read it. I won't read it again because I don't think there is any reason to revisit these experiments. It was enough to know that Hunter was a part of this revolutionary ideas. I've expanded my knowledge and learned something new. The book was interesting, but not enrapturing and completely engaging, so two and a half. But it was good, so I'm putting it up as three.

Only recommended for people who like biographies and a bit of a history lesson - with some interest in the medical field. This is a book for pretty specific interests. show less

I am not a fan of biographies but I was completely captivated by this book from page one. A fellow Scot like myself, John Hunter created modern medicine and surgery as we know it, as well as being the inspiration for the next generation of artists (Joshua Reynolds), composers (Haydn), writers (Samuel Johnson, Lord Byron and many others) and of course doctors (Lister and Jenner in particular) plus Hunter would be credited with being the inspiration for Dr Doolittle and his house would inspire Stevenson's "Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde". He would later found the Royal College of Surgeons as well as the Royal Vetinary College. His museum of body parts and skeletons still exists to this very day. He would become Surgeon-Extraordinary to King George show more III and Surgeon-General of the British Army.

But despite all this, Hunter would be despised in his lifetime for his progressive and forward-thinking theories. With his colleagues still practising medicine and surgery from the Dark Ages, Hunter would be cutting up dead bodies, examining the anatomy of the body and discovering how things worked. He would do the same with animals from dogs to elephants to zebras. He would then give lectures to an army of adoring medical students while his scheming brother would steal the body parts for his own private collection.

Hunter would eventually become the premier surgeon in London, treating rich and poor with his modern ideas. He was the first to do autopsies on dead people, he invented methods which basically invented defibrillation of the heart (electric shocks) and artificial insemination to help a woman conceive. He would work for free with poor people while buying their dead bodies from the graveyard later. He was obsessed with immortality and whether it was possible to obtain it.

This book is extremely fascinating. Hunter basically started what we consider today as day-to-day straight forward common surgery. If it wasn't for John Hunter, surgeons today would still be doing blood-letting and induced vomiting!!! The book is very graphic and blood-thirsty and makes you realise the horrors of falling ill in 18th Century Britain.

Get this book. Read it then read it again. Keep it on your bookshelf and keep reading it time and time again. Next time you're successfully cured by your doctor, thank John Hunter. show less