Great Medical Disasters
by Richard Gordon
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Description
Man's activities have been tainted by disaster ever since the serpent first approached Eve in the garden. And the world of medicine is no exception. In this outrageous and strangely informative book, Richard Gordon explores some of history's more bizarre medical disasters. He creates a catalogue of mishaps including anthrax bombs on Gruinard Island, destroying mosquitoes in Panama, and Mary the cook who, in 1904, inadvertently spread Typhoid across New York State. As the Bible so rightly show more says, 'He that sinneth before his maker, let him fall into the hands of the physician.' show lessTags
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Author Information
54+ Works 1,780 Members
Gordon Ostlere was born on September 15, 1921 in England. He was a surgeon and anaesthetist at St Bartholomew's Hospital in London. He wrote several technical books under his own name including Anaesthetics for Medical Students, Anaesthetics and the Patient, and Trichlorethylene Anaesthesia. He also wrote novels, screenplays, and accounts of show more popular history under the pen name Richard Gordon. He became a full-time author in 1952. He books included the Doctor series of novels, The Alarming History of Medicine, and The Alarming History of Sex. He died on August 11, 2017 at the age of 95. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Common Knowledge
- People/Characters
- William C. Gorgas; Mary Mallon (aka Typhoid Mary); Ferdinand de Lesseps; Robert Liston; Ignaz Semmelweis; Sir Paul Gordon Fildes (show all 40); Dom Pérignon; James Boswell (9th Laird of Auchinleck); Alexander Boswell (8th Laird of Auchinleck); Alexander Fleming; John Babbacombe Lee; James Berry; Sir William Arbuthnot Lane; Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov; Sir Bernard Spilsbury; George Washington Goethals; Carlos Finlay; John Rae; Frederick Schwatka; Sir John Franklin; Victoria, Queen of the United Kingdom (Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Empress of India); Albert, Prince Consort (Prince Consort); Otto von Bismarck; William I (German Emperor); Wilhelm II (German Kaiser and King of Prussia); Sir Morell Mackenzie; Frederick III (Elector of Saxony); Florence Nightingale; Charles II (King of England, Scotland, and Ireland); Sir Charles Scarborough; Pope John Paul II; Robert Koch; Léon Charles Albert Calmette; Edward Gibbon; Robert Knox; William Burke; William Hare; William Kemmler; Alexander Fleming; Howard Florey
- Important places
- Gruinard Island, Highland, Scotland, UK; Porton Down, Wiltshire, England, UK; Panama; Marburg, Hesse, Germany; New York, New York, USA; Oyster Bay, New York, USA (show all 16); Vienna, Austria; Berlin, Germany; Beachy Head, East Sussex, England, UK; Üsküdar, Istanbul, Turkey; Balaklava, Sevastopol, Ukraine (disputed); Loch Maree, Highland, Scotland, UK; Vatican City; Edinburgh, Scotland, UK; Melcombe Regis, Dorset, England, UK; London, England, UK
- Important events
- Black Death (1346 | 1353); Building of the Panama Canal; Franklin's Lost Expedition; Crimean War; Influenza pandemic (1918); Attempted assassination of John Paul II (show all 7); Burke and Hare murders
- Original language
- English
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 93
- Popularity
- 344,484
- Reviews
- 1
- Rating
- (3.80)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 7
- ASINs
- 1
