The Mystery of the Exploding Teeth and Other Curiosities from the History of Medicine
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The Mystery of the Exploding Teeth and Other Curiosities from the History of Medicine
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Narrated by:
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Rupert Farley
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Thomas Morris
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By:
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Thomas Morris
About this listen
Random House presents the audiobook edition of The Mystery of the Exploding Teeth and Other Curiosities from the History of Medicine by Thomas Morris, read by Thomas Morris and Rupert Farley.
· A mysterious epidemic of dental explosions.
· A teenage boy who got his wick stuck in a candlestick.
· A remarkable woman who, like a human fountain, spurted urine from virtually every orifice.
These are just a few of the anecdotal gems that have until now lain undiscovered in medical journals for centuries. This fascinating collection of historical curiosities explores some of the strangest cases that have perplexed doctors across the world.
From seventeenth-century Holland to Tsarist Russia, from rural Canada to a whaler in the Pacific, many are monuments to human stupidity – such as the sailor who swallowed dozens of penknives to amuse his shipmates, or the chemistry student who in 1850 arrived at a hospital in New York with his penis trapped inside a bottle, having unwisely decided to relieve himself into a vessel containing highly reactive potassium. Others demonstrate exceptional surgical ingenuity long before the advent of anaesthesia – such as a daring nineteenth-century operation to remove a metal fragment from beneath a conscious patient’s heart. We also hear of the weird, often hilarious remedies employed by physicians of yore – from crow’s vomit to port-wine enemas – the hazards of such everyday objects as cucumbers and false teeth, and miraculous recovery from apparently terminal injuries.
Blending fascinating history with lacerating wit, The Mystery of the Exploding Teeth will take you on a tour of some of the funniest, strangest and most wince-inducing corners of medical history.
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What listeners say about The Mystery of the Exploding Teeth and Other Curiosities from the History of Medicine
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
- struggling
- 30-11-19
Definitely my sort of book.
The stories ranged from amusing (I shall never resort to using a fork to relieve a costive condition) to the truly horrific (I'll leave you to find out). Never shall I swallow pocket-knives as a party-trick, nor insert anything where it is not intended to be inserted. Not that I've ever been in the habit of so doing, but after listening to this book, even the slightest temptation to do so has disappeared.
The delivery is similar to that of Angus Deayton in his HIGNFY heyday, and I loved the book. I didn't find the explanations or footnotes a problem: they melded well with the main body of the book. If I have a criticism, it is that when incidents based in France were quoted, the narrator did not seem to realise that "M" in front of a French name is not an initial but a title and should be pronounced "Monsieur".
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 26-08-21
Very enjoyable to listen to
Both the story and the narrator were great. I really liked the stories they included in the book and the way they were presented. If funny medical stories are your thing, this is definitely worth it.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 11-09-19
More books like this please!
Each story is as weird and wonderful as the last. I stayed awake listening to this for hours. The narration is clear and well paced. Not for anyone who might be squeamish but great for those who already have a medical mind or just interested in anatomy.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Julia1408
- 01-07-19
Another good commute book
I enjoed this book, although, whilst listening to it for long periods of time I did notice it came across as a little bit samey. And although the stories were interedting they were less about medical abnormalities and more about the crazy treatments given to the people (why did the Victorians love an enema so much!?)
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Trekkie Monster
- 19-04-19
Absolutely fascinating and thoroughly entertaining
If you've got even the smallest interest in medicine or medical science then this book is essential listening. You do not need to be a doctor as everything is explained in layman's terms.
As the title suggests this book brings together a while host of bizarre medical trauma cases or medical mystery cases along with their cleverly accurate solutions and conclusions as discovered in the 18th and 19th Centuries when physicians and surgeons did not have access to the scanners and X ray machines or clever lab tests of the 20th and 21st centuries.
One thing is for sure whilst this book is not gory it will leave you forever grateful that you were born in this era rather than in the 1700 and 1800s. Yikes!!!
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
- Noemie
- 20-04-19
Made me weep with laughter
Bloody fantastic, made a brilliantly interesting book. Very well written and researched, fantastically narrated....sequels p!ease!!!!!!
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Obsidianmodels
- 25-07-23
Worth listening to 10 times
It’s written well and read in a great way and the story’s are not ones that are repeated in fact books etc !
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Isla
- 09-06-20
Hilarious
Loved it. Helpful footnotes for any of the quoted old-timey lingo and funny observations to break up the absurd stories - best book I've ever listened to.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
- Mr. C. Rotchell
- 27-10-22
well constructed
I loved it, it was well written and in nice little bite sized chapters
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- I. Oh
- 09-04-23
Good
I really enjoyed the first half but grew a bit tired towards the end, i think it’d be better to read in parts rather than as a whole, on and off like a book on your shelf. The chapters are short and inconsequential to each other. I found the two narrators generally good, albeit sometimes a bit annoying (the author is quite posh and the other narrator talks slow).
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