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rereader33's review
5.0
This book made me so sad that Dr. Mutter passed away because I love him and want to be best friends with him RIGHT NOW! Seriously, I had a feeling I was going to love this book because of the subject matter, but I didn't anticipate falling so in love with Dr. Mutter and learning so much about Philadelphia in the 1800's. There's so much I want to say and discuss, but I would rather people read this book because it is amazing and is ABSOLUTELY worthy of your time. But to be fair, here are the highlights while reading this book. Enjoy!
1. Dr. Mutter being obsessed with looking nice and wearing gaudy clothing is amazing. I can just imagine people walking down the street, seeing this gaudy-ass dude, and thinking, "what the fuck is up with him?" than them finding out he's actually a respected surgeon and they're just like "whaaaaaaat..."
2. I am amazed and impressed that Carter did not throw Mutter into the Atlantic with all the debt he racked up. Carter truly had the patience of a saint.
3. Okay but seriously, how did Philadelphia manage to keep up it's population when LITERALLY EVERYTHING was killing of its citizens?! Seriously, I know Philadelphia had its fair share of diseases, but HOLY FUCK was there anything Philadelphians DIDN'T CONTRACT while living there?!
4. Meigs. Holy flying fucker fuck, Dr. Meigs. Dr. I knew everything regarding women's health because my wife gave birth to seven children and survived, plus I was one of many children AND my father was as well. Because, you know, that TOTES makes you credible in the ob/gyn field, am I right? Oh, and he didn't believe that physicians could spread diseases because "physicians are incapable of spreading evil," or some bullshit like that. AND he didn't believe that women in labor should have access to anesthesia because as daughters of Eve, "they have to suffer during labor for their sins," because that makes SO MUCH FUCKING SENSE and TOTALLY DOESN'T MAKE YOU AN ABSOLUTE DICKWAD OR ANYTHING. I'm so glad he got his just desserts in the end, fuck you Meigs.
5. The passages describing Dr. Mutter's surgeries were so enthralling and really showed what a phenomenal surgeon AND human he was.
6. I loved how Aptowicz wove in women's attire, the labor laws and how dangerous work was, slavery and racism, as well as other topics to discuss medicine. It's incredible to think that so many things are related to medicine outside of catching a disease or getting into an accident. Aptowicz taught me more about so many topics in this one book than I learned in my educational career. Well done, Aptowicz, well done.
7. Definitely shouldn't have eaten while reading some of this book, certain sections made me gag...
8. While not my favorite part, reading about how Dr. Mutter's students went on to become influential people in the medical community was awesome and heartwarming.
9. I want to hand this book to every single FUCKING person in medicine and say, "Read this. Read this and try to be like Dr. Mutter because he was FUCKING AMAZING and every single FUCKING person in the medical field should strive to be like him."
10. It's amazing to think that Dr. Mutter managed to accomplish so much in the fifteen years he was at Jefferson. What an incredible man.
In conclusion: this book was awesome, read it now, it is absolutely worth your time.
1. Dr. Mutter being obsessed with looking nice and wearing gaudy clothing is amazing. I can just imagine people walking down the street, seeing this gaudy-ass dude, and thinking, "what the fuck is up with him?" than them finding out he's actually a respected surgeon and they're just like "whaaaaaaat..."
2. I am amazed and impressed that Carter did not throw Mutter into the Atlantic with all the debt he racked up. Carter truly had the patience of a saint.
3. Okay but seriously, how did Philadelphia manage to keep up it's population when LITERALLY EVERYTHING was killing of its citizens?! Seriously, I know Philadelphia had its fair share of diseases, but HOLY FUCK was there anything Philadelphians DIDN'T CONTRACT while living there?!
4. Meigs. Holy flying fucker fuck, Dr. Meigs. Dr. I knew everything regarding women's health because my wife gave birth to seven children and survived, plus I was one of many children AND my father was as well. Because, you know, that TOTES makes you credible in the ob/gyn field, am I right? Oh, and he didn't believe that physicians could spread diseases because "physicians are incapable of spreading evil," or some bullshit like that. AND he didn't believe that women in labor should have access to anesthesia because as daughters of Eve, "they have to suffer during labor for their sins," because that makes SO MUCH FUCKING SENSE and TOTALLY DOESN'T MAKE YOU AN ABSOLUTE DICKWAD OR ANYTHING. I'm so glad he got his just desserts in the end, fuck you Meigs.
5. The passages describing Dr. Mutter's surgeries were so enthralling and really showed what a phenomenal surgeon AND human he was.
6. I loved how Aptowicz wove in women's attire, the labor laws and how dangerous work was, slavery and racism, as well as other topics to discuss medicine. It's incredible to think that so many things are related to medicine outside of catching a disease or getting into an accident. Aptowicz taught me more about so many topics in this one book than I learned in my educational career. Well done, Aptowicz, well done.
7. Definitely shouldn't have eaten while reading some of this book, certain sections made me gag...
8. While not my favorite part, reading about how Dr. Mutter's students went on to become influential people in the medical community was awesome and heartwarming.
9. I want to hand this book to every single FUCKING person in medicine and say, "Read this. Read this and try to be like Dr. Mutter because he was FUCKING AMAZING and every single FUCKING person in the medical field should strive to be like him."
10. It's amazing to think that Dr. Mutter managed to accomplish so much in the fifteen years he was at Jefferson. What an incredible man.
In conclusion: this book was awesome, read it now, it is absolutely worth your time.
romylu's review
5.0
I love a good narrative, nonfiction. Interesting glimpse into a slice of both medical & Philadelphia history.
hectaizani's review
4.0
I love reading about the history of medicine and learning about how much things have changed over time. I knew that there was a time when anesthesia hadn't been discovered, but hadn't really understood how that would affect the patients who were being operated on especially if their surgeon was a total arrogant ass. It was nice to read about one who wasn't. Dr. Mutter was pretty awesome and many of his innovations have continued to the present. I hope someday to visit the museum where many of his original specimens are housed.
emilyrandolph_epstein's review
4.0
Dr. Mutter's Marvels is an excellent biography for someone looking to read a medical history that's engaging, intriguing, and well-written without being bogged down by the dryness that typically marks some scholarly works. I found this book an informative introduction to an area of history about which I previously knew next to nothing.
However I frequently felt that the writer was too enamored of her subject. The book focuses solely on Mutter's successes and barely makes mention of his failures. The writer contrives to make a villain out of Dr. Meigs, one of Mutter's colleagues, without taking into account the religious climate of the time. Meigs was hardly a villain, simply a stubborn man who could not change his philosophy to fit a changing understanding of the world. She also - as far as I can recall - does not present any solid evidence that Meigs and Mutter ever actually publicly feuded. She presents plenty of evidence that they held opposing views, but makes heavy use of speculation to flesh out a subject she admits she had difficulty finding sources for.
Despite the book's biased narration, I found the prose to be well-written and vivid. The characterization of the City of Philadelphia as it was in the mid-nineteenth century was beautifully detailed as was the characterization of the medical community. I would have liked more facts and less speculation, but I none-the-less enjoyed this book immensely and was eager to finish my work each day so I could curl up with my dog and learn more about the remarkable Dr. Mutter, who was far ahead of his time.
However I frequently felt that the writer was too enamored of her subject. The book focuses solely on Mutter's successes and barely makes mention of his failures. The writer contrives to make a villain out of Dr. Meigs, one of Mutter's colleagues, without taking into account the religious climate of the time. Meigs was hardly a villain, simply a stubborn man who could not change his philosophy to fit a changing understanding of the world. She also - as far as I can recall - does not present any solid evidence that Meigs and Mutter ever actually publicly feuded. She presents plenty of evidence that they held opposing views, but makes heavy use of speculation to flesh out a subject she admits she had difficulty finding sources for.
Despite the book's biased narration, I found the prose to be well-written and vivid. The characterization of the City of Philadelphia as it was in the mid-nineteenth century was beautifully detailed as was the characterization of the medical community. I would have liked more facts and less speculation, but I none-the-less enjoyed this book immensely and was eager to finish my work each day so I could curl up with my dog and learn more about the remarkable Dr. Mutter, who was far ahead of his time.
avreereads's review
5.0
Quite literally could not put this book down! This is my kind of book! I loved EVERY second of it!
I devoured it in TWO days!
I'm obsessed with studying anything medicine related (especially at the dawn of modern medicine) and I love biographies so naturally I gravitated to this amazing book about a doctor, Thomas Dent Mütter, who was ahead of his time in advocating for hand sanitation and instrument/room sterilization (before antisepses was known) when it was unpopular to do so as they did not know in the mid-nineteenth century what contagions, communicable diseases, and microbes were. (As microorganisms would not be discovered until some decades after Mutter's demise by Louis Pasteur, who proved germ theory, and Nobel Prize-winner Robert Koch who helped establish that these microbes can cause disease.)
Mütter also changed the way all future physicians would interact with their patients when he discovered the "pre-operative" and "post-operative" measures taken to ensure a comfortable patient (well as comfortable as could be while being awake and alert during an operation).
He would familiarize the patient with his "touch" and what instruments he would be using, he walked them through the procedure and informed them what they could expect pain-wise.
Now what was common for post-operative measures in those days was...there was none. Patients would be shoved into a horse drawn cab with freshly stitched, weeping wounds and be jostled to-and-fro on the uneven cobblestone streets (sometimes for a half-a-day's journey) only to be dumped at their homes with no one to monitor their dressings or overall health and so many times the operation would be successful but they'd die once infection set it days after the surgery.
CAUTION: Some spoilers beyond this point in regards to some of Mütter's accomplishments.
So Mütter fought a long, hard battle to set up a "recovery area" for the patients, which took much time and convincing...but eventually such place was created!
He also was well respected by students and faculty alike for his use of the "Socratic Method". And perhaps for what he was best known for, was promoting the use of "ether anesthetic" which he felt was much more humane and realized "why cause patients undo pain and discomfort if there's something that can be done about that?" but again this was well before the popularization of anesthetics as we know it and was given much grief on the subject.
The cool thing is one of his students, Edward Robinson Squibb (of Bristol-Myers Squibb fame), would go on the discover a way to standardize ether administration to patients...seeing as back when his professor, Mütter, used it often times patients would die on the operating table seeing as it was so easy to overdose.
Unfortunately Mütter died at a young 47 years of age (1859) due to complications of a childhood lung illness and inherited gout but not before leaving an indelible impression on the future physicians and surgeons of America and around the world with his investigating into things even when they were wildly unpopular at the time! I really enjoyed reading about this incredible life!
I devoured it in TWO days!
I'm obsessed with studying anything medicine related (especially at the dawn of modern medicine) and I love biographies so naturally I gravitated to this amazing book about a doctor, Thomas Dent Mütter, who was ahead of his time in advocating for hand sanitation and instrument/room sterilization (before antisepses was known) when it was unpopular to do so as they did not know in the mid-nineteenth century what contagions, communicable diseases, and microbes were. (As microorganisms would not be discovered until some decades after Mutter's demise by Louis Pasteur, who proved germ theory, and Nobel Prize-winner Robert Koch who helped establish that these microbes can cause disease.)
Mütter also changed the way all future physicians would interact with their patients when he discovered the "pre-operative" and "post-operative" measures taken to ensure a comfortable patient (well as comfortable as could be while being awake and alert during an operation).
He would familiarize the patient with his "touch" and what instruments he would be using, he walked them through the procedure and informed them what they could expect pain-wise.
Now what was common for post-operative measures in those days was...there was none. Patients would be shoved into a horse drawn cab with freshly stitched, weeping wounds and be jostled to-and-fro on the uneven cobblestone streets (sometimes for a half-a-day's journey) only to be dumped at their homes with no one to monitor their dressings or overall health and so many times the operation would be successful but they'd die once infection set it days after the surgery.
CAUTION: Some spoilers beyond this point in regards to some of Mütter's accomplishments.
So Mütter fought a long, hard battle to set up a "recovery area" for the patients, which took much time and convincing...but eventually such place was created!
He also was well respected by students and faculty alike for his use of the "Socratic Method". And perhaps for what he was best known for, was promoting the use of "ether anesthetic" which he felt was much more humane and realized "why cause patients undo pain and discomfort if there's something that can be done about that?" but again this was well before the popularization of anesthetics as we know it and was given much grief on the subject.
The cool thing is one of his students, Edward Robinson Squibb (of Bristol-Myers Squibb fame), would go on the discover a way to standardize ether administration to patients...seeing as back when his professor, Mütter, used it often times patients would die on the operating table seeing as it was so easy to overdose.
Unfortunately Mütter died at a young 47 years of age (1859) due to complications of a childhood lung illness and inherited gout but not before leaving an indelible impression on the future physicians and surgeons of America and around the world with his investigating into things even when they were wildly unpopular at the time! I really enjoyed reading about this incredible life!