 | Dead Ends!: Flukes, Flops, & Failures That Sparked Medical Marvels Author: Fitzharris, Lindsey | |
| Price: $14.99 | ||
Summary:
Journey down a snaking road bristling with medicine’s most astonishing “dead ends.” Marvel at the diagnoses, experiments, and treatments that were frequently useless, and often harmful, but that sometimes led doctors to discoveries that changed the world for the better.
Reviews:
School Library Journal (+) (00/09/25)
Booklist (10/01/25)
Full Text Reviews:
Booklist - 10/01/2025 This is, appropriately, a thoroughly disgusting and sacrilegious book about the misguided ministrations of physicians over the past few millennia as they sought cures for all kinds of ailments based on religious, philosophical, and sometimes whimsical notions. The tone alternates among informative, sensational, irreverent, and tongue-in-cheek (sometimes literally), resulting in engaging and engrossing reading. The fairly lengthy chapters (10 to 20 pages each) concentrate on discrete body parts (skulls, limbs, hearts, blood, guts) and address such concerns as basic functions, common diseases and injuries, notable plagues and disasters, biographical profiles of doctors and patients, and graphic descriptions of the well-intentioned—but often deplorable—experiments, operations, and medications that eventually led to medical breakthroughs. Descriptions of period living conditions in various cultures provide social context; facts about health and hygiene integrate effortlessly as previous misconceptions are explored and skewered, and there’s reassuring information about contemporary practices. Multiple sidebars and humorous illustrations support the text; ample chapter notes and lists of references provide fodder for further exploration. Good luck keeping this gross one on library shelves once kids hear about it. - Copyright 2025 Booklist.
