The Mystery of the Exploding Teeth and Other Curiosities from the History of Medicine

By: Thomas Morris

Narrated by: Rupert Farley, Thomas Morris

Length: 9 hrs and 7 mins

Publisher's summary

Random House presents the audiobook edition of The Mystery of the Exploding Teeth and Other Curiosities from the History of Medicine by Thomas Morris, read by Thomas Morris and Rupert Farley.

• A mysterious epidemic of dental explosions.
• A teenage boy who got his wick stuck in a candlestick.
• A remarkable woman who, like a human fountain, spurted urine from virtually every orifice.

These are just a few of the anecdotal gems that have until now lain undiscovered in medical journals for centuries.

This fascinating collection of historical curiosities explores some of the strangest cases that have perplexed doctors across the world.

From 17th-century Holland to tsarist Russia, from rural Canada to a whaler in the Pacific, many are monuments to human stupidity - such as the sailor who swallowed dozens of penknives to amuse his shipmates or the chemistry student who in 1850 arrived at a hospital in New York with his penis trapped inside a bottle, having unwisely decided to relieve himself into a vessel containing highly reactive potassium.

Others demonstrate exceptional surgical ingenuity long before the advent of anaesthesia – such as a daring 19th-century operation to remove a metal fragment from beneath a conscious patient’s heart.

We also hear of the weird, often hilarious remedies employed by physicians of yore - from crow’s vomit to port-wine enemas - the hazards of such everyday objects as cucumbers and false teeth, and miraculous recovery from apparently terminal injuries.

Blending fascinating history with lacerating wit, The Mystery of the Exploding Teeth will take you on a tour of some of the funniest, strangest and most wince-inducing corners of medical history.

©2018 Thomas Morris (P)2018 Random House Audiobooks