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A review by ms_aprilvincent
Dr. Mütter's Marvels: A True Tale of Intrigue and Innovation at the Dawn of Modern Medicine by Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz
5.0
4.5
-audiobook-
The Mütter Museum has been on my bucket list since I was a pre-adult watching The Mummy Roadshow on the National Geographic Channel because it's just an obvious choice for me. So yeah, lemme read this book.
Dr. Thomas Dent Mütter was a teaching surgeon who cared about his patients and believed in stuff like aftercare and good hygiene. He taught at the Jefferson College in Philadelphia and was a straight up guy who loved his job and was really nice to boot.
Enter Dr. Charles D. Meigs, the villain of this piece, also a teacher at Jefferson, whose specialty was obstetrics. This is a dude who didn't believe in germs and said stuff like, "Women deserve to feel pain during childbirth because of that apple so you put that anesthesia away, sir." (paraphrased)
We hate him.
But Mütter! He likes bright clothes and is an 18th century pioneer of plastic surgery who closes cleft palates and does skin grafts on burn victims (I already knew about this technique, called Mütter's flap, because of who I am as a person). He collects medical specimens, not to create a freak show, but to provide educational aids that will encourage medical students to view patients as people instead of individual maladies.
The title of this book implies that it's going to be about the stuff that's in the museum, but it's not, and that's why I took off a half point--for disappointment.
However, I got super into this book, listening to the whole thing in two days and being absolutely giddy over it. I highly recommend it to people who like medical history, or American history, or weird stuff, or rivalries, or whatever: read it; it's great.
-audiobook-
The Mütter Museum has been on my bucket list since I was a pre-adult watching The Mummy Roadshow on the National Geographic Channel because it's just an obvious choice for me. So yeah, lemme read this book.
Dr. Thomas Dent Mütter was a teaching surgeon who cared about his patients and believed in stuff like aftercare and good hygiene. He taught at the Jefferson College in Philadelphia and was a straight up guy who loved his job and was really nice to boot.
Enter Dr. Charles D. Meigs, the villain of this piece, also a teacher at Jefferson, whose specialty was obstetrics. This is a dude who didn't believe in germs and said stuff like, "Women deserve to feel pain during childbirth because of that apple so you put that anesthesia away, sir." (paraphrased)
We hate him.
But Mütter! He likes bright clothes and is an 18th century pioneer of plastic surgery who closes cleft palates and does skin grafts on burn victims (I already knew about this technique, called Mütter's flap, because of who I am as a person). He collects medical specimens, not to create a freak show, but to provide educational aids that will encourage medical students to view patients as people instead of individual maladies.
The title of this book implies that it's going to be about the stuff that's in the museum, but it's not, and that's why I took off a half point--for disappointment.
However, I got super into this book, listening to the whole thing in two days and being absolutely giddy over it. I highly recommend it to people who like medical history, or American history, or weird stuff, or rivalries, or whatever: read it; it's great.