Curiosities in Medicine - Alphabetically

This 2nd edition sheds new light on the curious side of Medical History. Carl Sagan said: "You have to know the past to understand the present." This collection of 100 short stories, written by experts in the field, inspires curiosity and provides a detailed look at the History of Medicine.
It investigates many topics, including ancient Egyptian knowledge, the fundamental importance of toothache and how it birthed Anesthesia, and why and when women were allowed to run marathons. The authors report on the background of rubber gloves, the stethoscope and the intraocular lens. Historically important biographies are included, such as those of Arthur Conan Doyle, Napoleon Bonaparte and Claude Monet.
The book is also available as an audio version. It is relevant for those interested in Medicine and its curious history.
 
 
 
 

List of contents

1.  1. Alhazen. Madness to Mosque.- 2. Apple. Ocular Pathology and David J. Apple.- 3. Atropos. The Terrible Daughter.- 4. Auenbrugger. Thumping to Tapping.- 5. Bach. God Listens When the Angels Play Bach.- 6. Barbieri. Il Guercino (The Cross-Eyed).- 7. Berger. A Tiny Space with Big Implications.- 8. Biometry. Calculating the Human Eye.- 9. Bleuler. From Madness to Modern Psychiatry.- 10. Blonsky: Flying Babies?.- 11. Blue: Blue a Late Entry.- 12. Borodin: Science, Music and the Eye.- 13. Brandström. The Angel of Siberia.- 14. Braille. Braille Brings Light into Darkness.- 15. Bruegel. Art, the Bible and the Blind.- 16. Cassatt. An Insight into Her Eyesight.- 17. Chinin: Famous Men and the Lady.- 18. Contraception: Dung and Birth.- 19. Couching Cataracts: Just push it down!.- 20. Credé. Credé, a Baby, and Silver Nitrate.- 21. Diabetes. A New Life.- 22. Doyle. Crime and Medicine.- 23. Düsing. Nature s Unexpected Baby Boom.- 24. Dunant. From Riches to Rags.- 25. Epilepsy. Divine or Demonic?.- 26. Ether. The Birth of Modern Anaesthesia: The Death of Friendships.- 27. Eye Banking. Eye Banking and the Lions.- 28. Fercher. A Quantum Leap in Modern Cataract Surgery.- 29. Finger Print. Your Skin and Your Identity.- 30. Football for the Blind. If You Hear Voy! Watch Out!.- 31. Franklin. From Reading Stones to Bifocals.- 32. Glass Eyes. Sammy Davies Jr, Peter Falk, and Dr. Heinrich Adelmann: What do they have in common?.- 33. Gödel. The Genius and his Taster.- 34. Goethe. Genius Gone Wrong?.- 35. Guide Dogs. The Four-Footed Eyes of the Blind.- 36. El Greco. A Hundred Years of Fallacies.- 37. Gullstrand. Ophthalmologist Wins Nobel Prize.- 38. Gustav II. Adolf. Myopia, Oh My!.- 39. Haidinger. The Mystery in the Eye - Haidinger and the Vikings.- 40. Haldane. Blood and Breath.- 41. Hales. The Doctor and His Horse.- 42. Halsted. A Glove for Love.- 43. Helium. An Enema for Performance.- 44. Helmholtz. How to See the Back of the Eye.- 45. Hysteria. Hysteria and the Hammer.- 46. IOL Material. A Cloudy World is Cleared.- 47. IOL Power Calculation.- 48. Iry. Egypt 2400 BCE: Iry The First Known Ophthalmologist.- 49. Jersey. 33 Meters Below the Surface.- 50. Jastrow. Do you trust your eyes??.- 51. Jung-Stilling. The Castle, the Ghost and, the Ophthalmologist.- 52. Keller. Helen Keller and the Knights of the Blind .- 53. Kirschner. The Pain Went Away.- 54. Kneipp. The Priest and the Water Cure .- 55. Kohl. Kohl Protective or Toxic?.- 56. Korotkow. Listen and Learn!.- 57. Laënnec. The Extendable Ear.- 58. LASER. A solution in search of a problem .- 59. Leprosy. The Punishment of God ?.- 60. LSD. Hellfire, Hallucinogen or Remedy?.- 61. Lully. The Maestro Who Danced with Death.- 62. Mann, Ida. A Woman in a Man s World.- 63. Marathon. The Ladies and the Marathon Doctor .- 64. Marfan. Spider Fingers and Near- Sightedness.- 65. Meyer-Schwickerath. The Trapped Sun .- 66. Methamphetamine. Fuel for the Soldiers?.- 67. Monet. The Cataract and the Water Lily.- 68. Mozart. Vesalius to Mozart via Chocolate.- 69. Napoleon. The Butt of History.- 70. OCT. OCT is Not the Month!.- 71. Odilia. Saint of the Blind.- 72. Optography. The Last Image.- 73. OVD. Angel Cake Batter and the Eye.- 74. Paganini. Priapism and Paganini.- 75. Poppies. Beautiful but toxic and healthy??.- 76. Pythagoras. Pythagoras, the Bean-Banner?.- 77. Quarantine. Relevant. Yes.- 78. Radium. Radium as a Cure for Blindness?.- 79. Ridley. Fortune from Misfortune.- 80. Santorio. The Man who Lived on a Scale.- 81. Sauerbruch. Tyrant, Genius, and Friend of Hitler.- 82. Schweitzer. The Polymath and the People.- 83. Scopoli. Poison, Drugs and Medicine.- 84. Steiniger. The Weird Beard.- 85. Taylor. A Gold Plated Charlatan.- 86. Toothpaste. Smile: From Powdered Bone to Minty Fresh.- 87. Turner. The Sea, Art and, Cataracts.- 88. Tyndall: Tyndall, the Polymath.- 89. Ultrasound. Bats Have It!.- 90. Urine. The Golden Elixir.- 91. da Vinci. Leonardo da Vinci s dream.- 92. Visual Aids. Adding to the Eye.- 93. Voltaire. The Brewed Affair.- 94. Washington. America´s Historical Tooth.- 95. White Cane. To See or Be Seen.- 96. Wichterle. A Softer Way to See.- 97. Xenocrates. Nasty Business.- 98. Yersinia pestis. Passion for Vietnam and Science.- 99. Zamenhof. Ophthalmologist and the Non-Nation .- 100. Zirm. Banking on Sight.

About the author

Dr. Sibylle Scholtz, Medical Historian and Associated Senior Research Fellow (Institute of Experimental Ophthalmology, Saarland University, Faculty of Medicine). After studying biology and chemistry at the University of Regensburg, she did her Ph.D. at the University of Heidelberg. Sibylle looks back on many years of experience in the ophthalmic medical device industry. She is internationally known as author of various publications on the history of medicine as well as on ophthalmology, biometry and optics.
Myriam Becker, freelance journalist in the area of medical devices. She has an occupational history of more than 20 years in the Medical Device industry (ophthalmological sector). Myriam has co-authored various publications on the history of medicine. In the area of medical devices, she has published journal articles and co-authored the book "CE-marking for medical devices - A guide through the maze of requirements in Europe".
Throughout her life, Lee MacMorris has had a love of books and the beauty of the English language. After she retired from Civil Service, she returned to university for a Master’s in Library and Information Science and became a research librarian. She retired after 25 years as a research librarian with scientific and engineering companies. For several years, as head of the library at an American ophthalmic medical device company, Lee was responsible for detailed scientific literature searches and supported her global colleagues with their requested publications. Lee´s broad general knowledge, her solid understanding of the world, her great pleasure in books and her feeling for the subtleties of the English language, make her editing a real contribution to articles and books.
Prof. Dr. Achim Langenbucher studied for Electro techniques at the Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuremberg with the focus on digital signalprocessing and optics from 1986 to 1992, he finished with Diploma degree. From 1992 to 2005 he worked as a scientist at the Department of Ophthalmology, Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuremberg with Professor Dr. Dr. h.c. mult G.O.H. Naumann and finished his PhD-degree in 1995. He received his venia legend (Assistant Professor) in 2000. In 2005 he started as an Associate Professor and built-up the division Medical Optics at the Department of Medical Physics, Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuremberg. Since 2009 Professor Langenbucher is working as a Full Professor (chairman) at the Medical Faculty of Saarland University in Homburg and initialized the Department of Experimental Ophthalmology, which focuses on research in ophthalmology. His main focuses are the development and optimization of novel optical based diagnostic and therapeutic techniques in ophthalmology, optical simulations, customized optical implants, biometry and IOL power calculation.
 
 
 

Summary

This 2nd edition sheds new light on the curious side of Medical History. Carl Sagan said: ”You have to know the past to understand the present.” This collection of 100 short stories, written by experts in the field, inspires curiosity and provides a detailed look at the History of Medicine.
It investigates many topics, including ancient Egyptian knowledge, the fundamental importance of toothache and how it birthed Anesthesia, and why and when women were allowed to run marathons. The authors report on the background of rubber gloves, the stethoscope and the intraocular lens. Historically important biographies are included, such as those of Arthur Conan Doyle, Napoleon Bonaparte and Claude Monet.
The book is also available as an audio version. It is relevant for those interested in Medicine and its curious history.
 
 
 
 

Product details

• Authors: Myriam Becker, Achi Langenbucher, Achim Langenbucher, Lee MacMorris, Sibylle Scholtz
• Publisher: Springer, Berlin
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Release: 28.09.2025
• EAN: 9783031948473
• ISBN: 978-3-0-3194847-3
• No. of pages: 350
• Illustrations: Approx. 350 p. With online files/update.
• Subjects: Natural sciences, medicine, IT, technology > Medicine > General; Medizin, allgemein, History, Medicine, History of Medicine, Clinical Medicine, Curiosities in Medicine, Medical-historical Stories