Bleed, Blister, Puke, and Purge: The Dirty Secrets Behind Early American Medicine

by J. Marin Younker

Overview

Riots over the medical use of cadavers, public access to institutions for the insane, and full-blown surgeries without the aid of anesthetics or painkillers. Welcome to the middle ages of American medicine.
Bleed, Blister, Puke, and Purge exposes the extraordinary practices and major players of American medical history, from America's colonial era to the late 1800s. It's hard to believe that today's cutting-edge medicine originated from such crude beginnings, but this book reminds us to be grateful for today's medical care, while also raising the question: what current medical practices will be the horrors of tomorrow?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781942186502
Publisher:	Lerner Publishing Group
Publication date:	01/01/2018
Pages:	112
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.30(d)
Age Range:	13 - 17 Years

About the Author

J. Marin Younker worked as a public librarian for thirteen years, book-talking in the schools, leading book groups, talking to teens, and managing teen collections. She earned a degree in History from Western Washington University, and now lives in the Seattle area with her family and animal menagerie.

Editorial Reviews

"A compelling read that will be useful as a companion text for early U.S. history curricula and for students with an interest in the macabre.” - School Library Journal


"An engrossing, entertaining history of medicine for those who enjoy it told with a heavy dose of blood and guts.” - Kirkus

From the Publisher

09/01/2016
Gr 6 Up—Beginning with the arrival of colonists to the New World, Younker provides readers with a chronicle of medical care in early U.S. history. The heroic method—a combination of medical practices that included bleeding, blistering, and purging—was a key component of patient care well into the mid-1800s. Illness was often attributed to out-of-sync humors—a theory, as Younker explains, that harkens back to the influential writings of early physicians Hippocrates and Galen. Employed to rebalance the humors, heroic medical practices were anything but heroic, as they undoubtedly caused more pain or death than relief or cure. Readers learn about a variety of early American oddities as well as incremental medical advancements, such as the proliferation of freak shows, the practice of grave robbing for dissection of cadavers, medical quacks, and the emergence of the first hospital and medical school. It wasn't until the late 19th century that Louis Pasteur's work on germ theory and Joseph Lister's employment of carbolic acid as an antiseptic during surgery finally took hold in the United States and changed the way medicine was practiced. The chronology isn't always as linear as the chapter headings would suggest, and photos are sparse, but numerous sidebars chock-full of fascinating anecdotes coupled with Younker's sarcastic commentary peppered throughout add interest. VERDICT A compelling read that will be useful as a companion text for early U.S. history curricula and for students with an interest in the macabre.—Ragan O'Malley, Saint Ann's School, Brooklyn

School Library Journal

2016-08-02
This frequently gruesome history of American medicine, from the Colonial era to the late 1800s, makes a convincing case that the worst thing a sick person could do is seek medical treatment; it could very well be lethal. In the Colonial era, the word “physician” was used far more loosely than it is today. “At the time of the American Revolution, only 400 out of the approximately 3,500 practicing physicians held medical degrees,” and those degrees could be purchased without need of apprenticeships or formal education. Education and training standards improved in the decades to come, but methods remained stubbornly primitive as the profession was slow to recognize new discoveries and adopt new approaches. In grimly vivid detail, Younker describes such common practices as amputation, bleeding, leeching, purging, trepanning, and uroscopy. She also introduces influential, notable, and infamous practitioners of the times: Samuel Morton, a phrenology enthusiast and collector of skulls; John Morgan and William Shippen, who co-founded the first Colonial medical school in Philadelphia; Thomas Dent Mütter and his vast collection of medical curiosities; and Benjamin Rush, a proponent of extreme bloodletting. An engrossing, entertaining history of medicine for those who enjoy it told with a heavy dose of blood and guts. (photos, bibliography) (Nonfiction. 12-18)

Kirkus Review