The Mystery of the Exploding Teeth

And Other Curiosities from the History of Medicine

By: Thomas Morris

Narrated by: Thomas Morris, Ruper Farley

"Delightfully horrifying." (Popular Science)

One of Mental Floss' Best Books of 2018

One of Science Friday's Best Science Books of 2018

This wryly humorous collection of stories about bizarre medical treatments and cases offers a unique portrait of a bygone era in all its jaw-dropping weirdness.

A puzzling series of dental explosions beginning in the 19th century is just one of many strange tales that have long lain undiscovered in the pages of old medical journals. Award-winning medical historian Thomas Morris delivers one of the most remarkable, cringe-inducing collections of stories ever assembled.

Witness mysterious illnesses (such as the Rhode Island woman who peed through her nose), horrifying operations (1781: A French soldier in India operates on his own bladder stone), tall tales (like the "amphibious infant" of Chicago, a baby that could apparently swim underwater for half an hour), unfortunate predicaments (such as that of the boy who honked like a goose after inhaling a bird's larynx), and a plethora of other marvels.

Beyond a series of anecdotes, these painfully amusing stories reveal a great deal about the evolution of modern medicine. Some show the medical profession hopeless in the face of ailments that today would be quickly banished by modern drugs; but others are heartening tales of recovery against the odds, patients saved from death by the devotion or ingenuity of a conscientious doctor.

However embarrassing the ailment or ludicrous the treatment, every case in The Mystery of the Exploding Teeth tells us something about the knowledge (and ignorance) of an earlier age, along with the sheer resilience of human life.

©2018 Thomas Morris (P)2018 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"A Ripley-esque collection of ‘compellingly disgusting, hilarious, or downright bizarre’ medical oddities...accompanied by the author's witty and often humorous, colloquial commentary." (Kirkus Reviews)

“In The Mystery of the Exploding Teeth and Other Curiosities from the History of Medicine, Thomas Morris takes a delightful romp through a myriad of entertaining, arcane and obscure medical anecdotes plucked from 18th- and 19th-century newspapers, journals and textbooks.... Using a panoply of colorful examples, the author artfully illustrates the frustrations, uncertainty, poorly founded confidence and frequent futility of medical practice in the prescientific age.” (Wall Street Journal)

"The vast amount of material from diverse sources will amuse readers and leave them shaking their heads...[an] informative, fascinating look at the history of medicine." (Library Journal)

interesting stories, mediocre narrator

Interesting stories made worse by the author inserting jokes and offhand comments in the middle of the narrative.

Very Entertaining but Cringeworthy at Times

This is a wild and fascinating glimpse at crazy medical occurrences in the past. Be prepared to feel quite pained at times as you hear what people went through and the treatment they endured!

Oddities in Medicine and Health

Well written, and engaging. I found this book to be exactly as advertised, although perhaps I would have liked a little more humor and bit less of some of the more serious issues. But otherwise a good choice of listen for most people. Not as grotesque as I thought it might be either, although there are some cases that were definitely quite disturbing in nature.

Very entertaining!

Fascinating and humorous! The reader regales us with tales of truly bizarre medical conditions and events.

Audio kept cutting out, but otherwise great.

First off, great story. Loved it, and loved the narrators. But the audio would cut out for several seconds, several times per minute, leaving out entire sentences sometimes, and it was beyond irritating. I deleted and re-downloaded the title, made sure the app was up to date, etc., but it just kept doing it. It has never happened with the dozens of titles I've listened to before, and isn't happening with the new title I'm listening to now, so it's definitely just something weird with this book. Very disappointing.

A Little Bored

Started to drag near the end for me. Felt repetitive as we went through 69 stories.

I have rarely been so happy to finish a book

If you enjoy medical oddities, grotesque situations, or morbid stories this book is probably going to be enjoyable. Often it left me deeply uncomfortable.

Absolutely loved it.

a must read foreverybody!!!!! give it to every young person who wants to study medicine or related.

Not what I was expecting

I was hoping for a variety of interesting strange and current set of medical oddity stories. The book is just medical stories from the Victorian era that at some point where kinda interesting, I guess. The best part of this was the narrator. I felt I had to force myself to finish this book.

Very detailed, in a very British accent, so things are bright and shiny.

Very, very interesting compilation of stories! I played a little at a time to make it last. Some pronunciation is a little off for us Americans, but it’s not a problem. I enjoyed it from start to stop, and felt a larger dose of “me, too,” than expected.
Thoroughly entertaining!