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A review by merricatct
Dr. Mütter's Marvels: A True Tale of Intrigue and Innovation at the Dawn of Modern Medicine by Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz
5.0
I'm going to Philadelphia at the end of the month, and already planned on visiting the Mutter Museum - so when I saw this in the nonfiction new releases section of the library, I knew I had to read it! I'm very glad I did. This is exactly in my wheelhouse - narrative nonfiction (think Devil in the White City) - and I was enraptured from page 1.
This book does a fantastic job of presenting a living, breathing historical figure, while also fleshing out the times and places through which he moved. I knew little of Mutter before I started the book - just that his collection of "medical oddities" could be found in his namesake museum - and that's not exactly the nicest thing to know about someone. If anything, the idea of someone collecting these mementos of suffering and deformity seemed a little ghoulish or exploitative. But now that I've read the book, I see it in an entirely new light. Mutter lived in a time of tremendous scientific upheaval in the medical community, and was often a champion of progressive medical ideals - promoting an antiseptic environment before germ theory was understood, embracing anesthesia when so many doctors were originally against it, promoting round-the-clock care for surgical patients at a time when they were usually simply put into a carriage and sent home after their procedures - but his greatest gift was his compassion for his patients. He sought out the most difficult cases, and despite how they appeared physically, he saw them as human beings who deserved honesty and compassionate care. His collection is a reflection of that - reminders of human suffering, but also human endurance and capability, and overall a testament to the progress made in the field of medicine.
Annual Popsugar Reading Challenge: a book with alliteration in the title
This book does a fantastic job of presenting a living, breathing historical figure, while also fleshing out the times and places through which he moved. I knew little of Mutter before I started the book - just that his collection of "medical oddities" could be found in his namesake museum - and that's not exactly the nicest thing to know about someone. If anything, the idea of someone collecting these mementos of suffering and deformity seemed a little ghoulish or exploitative. But now that I've read the book, I see it in an entirely new light. Mutter lived in a time of tremendous scientific upheaval in the medical community, and was often a champion of progressive medical ideals - promoting an antiseptic environment before germ theory was understood, embracing anesthesia when so many doctors were originally against it, promoting round-the-clock care for surgical patients at a time when they were usually simply put into a carriage and sent home after their procedures - but his greatest gift was his compassion for his patients. He sought out the most difficult cases, and despite how they appeared physically, he saw them as human beings who deserved honesty and compassionate care. His collection is a reflection of that - reminders of human suffering, but also human endurance and capability, and overall a testament to the progress made in the field of medicine.
Annual Popsugar Reading Challenge: a book with alliteration in the title