Scan barcode
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!
showell's review
4.0
Engagingly written narrative biography of Dr. Thomas Dent Mutter, one of the nation's first plastic surgeons, and by this account, a truly compassionate and forward-thinking physician. Despite his penchant for collecting medical oddities to use in his lectures, Dr. Mutter apparently insisted upon his students viewing their patients as people, rather than simply interesting cases. He was also one of the first surgeons to insist upon cleanliness of himself and his tools as a way to reduce post-surgical infection, and to set up a revolutionary system to provide case for his surgical patients before and after their surgeries on the school grounds. (Many of his surgeries were performed in public as demonstrations so that his students could learn / see the techniques for themselves. Before Dr. Mutter, those patients were brought in for the surgery and sent home immediately afterward in a jolting carriage with little to no follow-up care.)
I found some of the medical details graphic and difficult to read. I had to take a few breaks from the book, particularly during the sections when the standard gynecological treatments for women at the time came up, but I came back to it quickly, and ended up finishing the book within 24 hours.
I found some of the medical details graphic and difficult to read. I had to take a few breaks from the book, particularly during the sections when the standard gynecological treatments for women at the time came up, but I came back to it quickly, and ended up finishing the book within 24 hours.
chelseanicoletta's review
3.0
This book is not what I was expecting. I expected to be intrigued by the science and life of Dr. Mütter, but I would say maybe 50% of this book was actually about him. (And there also wasn't a lot of mention of the "marvels" either.) A lot of this book was about other doctors and the state of medicine during the 1800s. Which, although somehwat interesting, was not what I anticipated going in.
I still plan to visit the museum post-COVID, though.
I still plan to visit the museum post-COVID, though.
ashley_choo's review
5.0
This book is the incredible true story about Thomas Mütter, a compassionate, intelligent, and passionate surgeon who, with every page of the book, gracefully eases his way into your heart in a blinding swirl of bright, colourful clothes and a charming smile.
The author's wonderful writing style flawlessly transports you to a time where medical professors would conduct amputations on a poor, desperate civilian, who would have to stay awake, in agonising pain, while hundreds of medical students would look on, eagerly taking notes with each careful slice of the scalpel.
I've never actually managed to finish a biography, and never before have I regarded a character with as much fondness as Dr. Mütter. This extraordinary book reads like an adventure story, with horrifying illnesses and deformities plaguing the victims, and the gentle saviour, the good doctor, who treated each patient with unfailing charm, kindness, and honesty. I loved every page of it.
The author's wonderful writing style flawlessly transports you to a time where medical professors would conduct amputations on a poor, desperate civilian, who would have to stay awake, in agonising pain, while hundreds of medical students would look on, eagerly taking notes with each careful slice of the scalpel.
I've never actually managed to finish a biography, and never before have I regarded a character with as much fondness as Dr. Mütter. This extraordinary book reads like an adventure story, with horrifying illnesses and deformities plaguing the victims, and the gentle saviour, the good doctor, who treated each patient with unfailing charm, kindness, and honesty. I loved every page of it.