The Mystery of the Exploding Teeth

And Other Curiosities from the History of Medicine

By: Thomas Morris

Narrated by: Thomas Morris, Ruper Farley

Length: 9 hrs and 7 mins

Publisher's summary

"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)

A Little Bored

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

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.

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.

Craving deeper investigation

Fun quips but overall the book is lacking in depth of story. The exploding teeth stories especially deserve more investigation! I generally prefer long-form science journalism, but I would have liked an entire book based on any of these short reports.

Unusual problems doctors faced!

The Mystery of the Exploding Teeth
And Other Curiosities from the History of Medicine
By: Thomas Morris
Narrated by: Thomas Morris, Ruper Farley
Wow, this book tells the strangest tales of horrible things that happened to people or people did to themselves, or just weird stories or bad luck! Stupidity or bad luck? Maybe a bit of both!
I won't even try to give examples because I don't want my review to be censored! I love to read about bizarre medical history and culture. This covers more weird things doctors came across they had to treat. It does give examples of treatments but mostly it's about the problem and how it happened! Very interesting indeed!
Good narration!

This was fun!

Great fun listening to this. I gave 4/5 stars for performance simply because one of the narrators (Ruper Farley) had the most cringeworthy American accent, and impossible-to-understand French pronunciation. This is a great book for medical professionals and the layperson alike. I found myself gasping and laughing throughout. Thomas Morris is an excellent writer and his presentation is fantastic.

Captivating!

This entire group of stories of historical medicine is nothing short of captivating. The detail that the writer has gone to and the readers are all wonderful and it was very entertaining for a nurse. Thank you for a great read!

The insanity of it all!

I've listened to other books on earlier medical practices and treatments and always enjoyed those. I have to say, it blows my mind how many things people will do to themselves with no clue that it's a dumb idea! it's just hard to imagine even way back then that no common sense could be found! very entertaining on multiple levels.

One of my favorite medicine-based books

I love the odd medical stories and this one has lots of them. It's very fascinating. I do a re-listen every once and a while just to enjoy it again. If medical oddities are your thing, you're going to enjoy it, too. It's not a technical read, just some odd stories gathered up from old medical journals and presented in a very interesting manner. They are often fascinating, horrifying, awesome and stunning by turn. You'll appreciate modern medicine a lot better after hearing some of these tales.

I found the two-person narration very well done, too. I really did thoroughly enjoy this book.