Dr. Mutter's Marvels by Cristin O'keefe Aptowicz

Dr. Mutter's Marvels by Cristin O'keefe Aptowicz

Amesmerizing biography of the brilliant and eccentric medical innovator who revolutionized American surgery and founded the country's most famous museum of medical oddities

Imagine undergoing an operation without anesthesia, performed by a surgeon who refuses to sterilize his tools-or even wash his hands. This was the world of medicine when Thomas Dent M tter began his trailblazing career as a plastic surgeon in Philadelphia during the mid-nineteenth century.

Although he died at just forty-eight, M tter was an audacious medical innovator who pioneered the use of ether as anesthesia, the sterilization of surgical tools, and a compassion-based vision for helping the severely deformed, which clashed spectacularly with the sentiments of his time. Brilliant, outspoken, and brazenly handsome, M tter was flamboyant in every aspect of his life. He wore pink silk suits to perform surgery, added an umlaut to his last name just because he could, and amassed an immense collection of medical oddities that would later form the basis of Philadelphia's renowned M tter Museum.

Award-winning writer Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz vividly chronicles how M tter's efforts helped establish Philadelphia as a global mecca for medical innovation-despite intense resistance from his numerous rivals. (Foremost among them: Charles D. Meigs, an influential obstetrician who loathed M tter's "overly modern" medical opinions.) In the narrative spirit ofThe Devil in the White City,Dr. M tter's Marvelsinterweaves an eye-opening portrait of nineteenth-century medicine with the riveting biography of a man once described as the " P. T. Barnum of the surgery room."

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781592409259
ISBN 10	1592409253
Title	Dr. Mutter's Marvels
Author	Cristin O'keefe Aptowicz
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Penguin Putnam Inc
Year published	2015-09-08
Number of pages	384
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.