Biography with body parts

The Knife Man:

Blood, Body Snatching, and the Birth of Modern Surgery 

by Wendy Moore

 

Unless you're a student of the history of medicine, John Hunter is the most important man you've never heard of.  He was so far ahead of his time (1728-1793) that his discoveries were assimilated into science without public notice or newspaper fanfare, despite his renown--and disrenown--among his colleagues. When he observed that bloodletting frequently weakened the subject and slowed recovery, he pretty much discontinued it except at the insistence of the patient. He demonstrated that the mothers' and fetus' blood supply were distinct and did not conjoin; credit for which discovery was taken by someone else--his brother.  His research on animal and human anatomy caused him to predate Darwin in recognizing evolution, even if he didn't coin a catchy title or deduce how it operated.

Even if you're not a science geek, this is a fascinating biography. He began his career as a cadaver hound for his brother, the surgeon William Hunter.  Cadavers were hard to come by in those days--people clung fervently to their dead. I wouldn't have thought it, seeing how many more dead they used to have back then, but of course many believed in resurrection of the body and all were distrustful of the surgeon's knife. Probably fear of witchcraft entered into it.

He ended his career as he'd begun it, with little fanfare and lots of long hours of hard work. And he left behind a monumental collection of specimens and beasties and sometimes even specimens of beasties--what a museum that must have been.  (And still is--the Hunterian Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons houses it.)