The Medical Detectives: The Classic Collection of Award-Winning Medical Investigative Reporting (Truman Talley)
Registered by 
GoryDetails
of Nashua, New Hampshire USA on 1/9/2017
This Book is Currently in the Wild!
GoryDetails of Nashua, New Hampshire USA on 1/9/2017 This Book is Currently in the Wild!
1 journaler for this copy...
I got this fair-condition softcover from the ongoing book-sale at the Tyngsboro MA public library, for another release copy.
With chapter headings like "Eleven Blue Men," "A Pig from Jersey," and "The Liberace Room," it's an enticing collection of bizarre, sometimes-tragic, sometimes-humorous medical mysteries, most from the '60s and '70s. The process of tracking the sources of the varied symptoms is definitely similar to the detection of a crime (and many of the examples reminded me of the more extreme "search the home of the patient" sequences on the "House" TV series!).
The causes can be as simple as eating an unwashed apple from the wrong vendor's cart, or as elaborate as grafting tomatoes with high-alkaloid - and poisonous - Jimson weed and eating the resulting fruit. There are nasty viruses, carotene overdoses, and even a case or two that looks serious but turns out to be nothing at all. The scariest items had to do with mental changes; amnesia, or a sudden and inexplicable change in the patient's perception of her body - these were like the cases Oliver Sacks reports on, and I found them the most disturbing of all.
With chapter headings like "Eleven Blue Men," "A Pig from Jersey," and "The Liberace Room," it's an enticing collection of bizarre, sometimes-tragic, sometimes-humorous medical mysteries, most from the '60s and '70s. The process of tracking the sources of the varied symptoms is definitely similar to the detection of a crime (and many of the examples reminded me of the more extreme "search the home of the patient" sequences on the "House" TV series!).
The causes can be as simple as eating an unwashed apple from the wrong vendor's cart, or as elaborate as grafting tomatoes with high-alkaloid - and poisonous - Jimson weed and eating the resulting fruit. There are nasty viruses, carotene overdoses, and even a case or two that looks serious but turns out to be nothing at all. The scariest items had to do with mental changes; amnesia, or a sudden and inexplicable change in the patient's perception of her body - these were like the cases Oliver Sacks reports on, and I found them the most disturbing of all.
Journal Entry 2 by GoryDetails at Pinkerton Academy, 19 N. Main St. in Derry, New Hampshire USA on Tuesday, January 10, 2017
GoryDetails at Pinkerton Academy, 19 N. Main St. in Derry, New Hampshire USA on Tuesday, January 10, 2017
Released 7 yrs ago (1/10/2017 UTC) at Pinkerton Academy, 19 N. Main St. in Derry, New Hampshire USA
WILD RELEASE NOTES:
I left this book on a window ledge in the entrance of the Pinkerton Building at around 4; hope the finder enjoys it![See other recent releases in New Hampshire here.]
