Curiosities in Medicine - Alphabetically

Step into the fascinating world of medical history with the second edition of Curiosities in Medicine: Alphabetically, now featuring 20 new chapters, for a total of 100 captivating stories! This expanded collection takes you on a journey through the strange, surprising, and sometimes shocking tales that have shaped medicine as we know it.
 
Explore the peculiar, the profound, and the puzzling with entries like:
Flying Babies? The unusual experiments of George Blonsky.
Helium for Performance: The unexpected use of gas in an athletic enema.
Poppies: Beautiful but Toxic and Healthy? The dual nature of opium s legacy.

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 o

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

Step into the fascinating world of medical history with the second edition of
Curiosities in Medicine: Alphabetically
, now featuring
20 new chapters
, for a total of
100 captivating stories
! This expanded collection takes you on a journey through the strange, surprising, and sometimes shocking tales that have shaped medicine as we know it.

 
Explore the peculiar, the profound, and the puzzling with entries like:

•
Flying Babies?
The unusual experiments of George Blonsky.


•
Helium for Performance
: The unexpected use of gas in an athletic enema.


•
Poppies: Beautiful but Toxic – and Healthy?
The dual nature of opium’s legacy.


•
Mozart’s Chocolate Connection
: A surprising link between Vesalius, Mozart, and everyone’s favorite treat.


•
Urine: The Golden Elixir
: Medicine’s strange fascination with this bodily fluid.


•
Epilepsy: Divine or Demonic?
How perceptions of the condition have evolved through the ages.


•
Methamphetamine and Soldiers
: The role of stimulants in wartime.

 
These new chapters join beloved stories from the first edition, bringing fresh insights into the weird and wonderful world of medical history. Each chapter is a standalone adventure, written in an accessible and engaging style that invites readers of all backgrounds to explore the quirks of medicine through the ages.
 

From
Helen Keller’s crusade for the blind
to
Voltaire’s scandalous brew
, this updated collection is perfect for curious minds, history buffs, and medical enthusiasts alike. Whether you’re intrigued by ancient remedies, strange experiments, or the lives of historical figures,
Curiosities in Medicine: Alphabetically
promises to entertain, enlighten, and inspire.

 
Prepare to laugh, gasp, and marvel at the stories that reveal the astonishing creativity, resilience, and oddities of the human pursuit of healing. This second edition will leave you questioning what you thought you knew about the history of medicine.
 
Curiosities in Medicine: Alphabetical
– Where history meets the unexpected.

Product details

• Authors: Myriam Becker, Achi Langenbucher, Achim Langenbucher, Lee MacMorris, Lee et MacMorris, Sibylle Scholtz
• Publisher: Springer, Berlin
• Languages: English, German
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 27.12.2025
• EAN: 9783031948473
• ISBN: 978-3-0-3194847-3
• No. of pages: 399
• Illustrations: XIX, 399 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