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The Knife Man by Wendy Moore
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The Knife Man

Blood, Body Snatching, and the Birth of Modern Surgery

Blood, Body Snatching, and the Birth of Modern Surgery

The Extraordinary Life and Times of John Hunter, Father of Modern Surgery

By Wendy Moore

By Wendy Moore

By Wendy Moore

By Wendy Moore

By Wendy Moore
Read by Steve West

By Wendy Moore
Read by Steve West

Paperback $16.00

Sep 12, 2006 | 352 Pages

Ebook $7.99

Dec 18, 2007 | 352 Pages

Audiobook Download $22.50

Apr 28, 2015 | 808 Minutes

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    The Knife Man by Wendy Moore
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    Sep 12, 2006 | 352 Pages
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      Sep 12, 2006 | 352 Pages

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    • Ebook $7.99

      Dec 18, 2007 | 352 Pages

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    About The Knife Man

    In an era when bloodletting was considered a cure for everything from colds to smallpox, surgeon John Hunter was a medical innovator, an eccentric, and the person to whom anyone who has ever had surgery probably owes his or her life. In this sensational and macabre story, we meet the surgeon who counted not only luminaries Benjamin Franklin, Lord Byron, Adam Smith, and Thomas Gainsborough among his patients but also “resurrection men” among his close acquaintances. A captivating portrait of his ruthless devotion to uncovering the secrets of the human body, and the extraordinary lengths to which he went to do so—including body snatching, performing pioneering medical experiments, and infecting himself with venereal disease—this rich historical narrative at last acknowledges this fascinating man and the debt we owe him today.

    About The Knife Man

    When Robert Louis Stevenson wrote his gothic horror story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, he based the house of the genial doctor-turned-fiend on the home of John Hunter. The choice was understandable, for Hunter was both widely acclaimed and greatly feared.
     
    From humble origins, John Hunter rose to become the most famous anatomist and surgeon of the eighteenth century. In an age when operations were crude, extremely painful, and often fatal, he rejected medieval traditions to forge a revolution in surgery founded on pioneering scientific experiments. Using the knowledge he gained from countless human dissections, Hunter worked to improve medical care for both the poorest and the best-known figures of the era—including Sir Joshua Reynolds and the young Lord Byron.
     
    An insatiable student of all life-forms, Hunter was also an expert naturalist. He kept exotic creatures in his country menagerie and dissected the first animals brought back by Captain Cook from Australia. Ultimately his research led him to expound highly controversial views on the age of the earth, as well as equally heretical beliefs on the origins of life more than sixty years before Darwin published his famous theory.
     
    Although a central figure of the Enlightenment, Hunter’s tireless quest for human corpses immersed him deep in the sinister world of body snatching. He paid exorbitant sums for stolen cadavers and even plotted successfully to steal the body of Charles Byrne, famous in his day as the “Irish giant.”
     
    In The Knife Man, Wendy Moore unveils John Hunter’s murky and macabre world—a world characterized by public hangings, secret expeditions to dank churchyards, and gruesome human dissections in pungent attic rooms. This is a fascinating portrait of a remarkable pioneer and his determined struggle to haul surgery out of the realms of meaningless superstitious ritual and into the dawn of modern medicine.

    About The Knife Man

    When Robert Louis Stevenson wrote his gothic horror story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, he based the house of the genial doctor-turned-fiend on the home of John Hunter. The choice was understandable, for Hunter was both widely acclaimed and greatly feared.
     
    From humble origins, John Hunter rose to become the most famous anatomist and surgeon of the eighteenth century. In an age when operations were crude, extremely painful, and often fatal, he rejected medieval traditions to forge a revolution in surgery founded on pioneering scientific experiments. Using the knowledge he gained from countless human dissections, Hunter worked to improve medical care for both the poorest and the best-known figures of the era—including Sir Joshua Reynolds and the young Lord Byron.
     
    An insatiable student of all life-forms, Hunter was also an expert naturalist. He kept exotic creatures in his country menagerie and dissected the first animals brought back by Captain Cook from Australia. Ultimately his research led him to expound highly controversial views on the age of the earth, as well as equally heretical beliefs on the origins of life more than sixty years before Darwin published his famous theory.
     
    Although a central figure of the Enlightenment, Hunter’s tireless quest for human corpses immersed him deep in the sinister world of body snatching. He paid exorbitant sums for stolen cadavers and even plotted successfully to steal the body of Charles Byrne, famous in his day as the “Irish giant.”
     
    In The Knife Man, Wendy Moore unveils John Hunter’s murky and macabre world—a world characterized by public hangings, secret expeditions to dank churchyards, and gruesome human dissections in pungent attic rooms. This is a fascinating portrait of a remarkable pioneer and his determined struggle to haul surgery out of the realms of meaningless superstitious ritual and into the dawn of modern medicine.

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    About Wendy Moore

    Wendy Moore is a writer and journalist specializing in health and medical topics. She has a diploma in the History of Medicine from the Society of Apothecaries. The Knife Man is her first book.

    About Wendy Moore

    Wendy Moore is a writer and journalist specializing in health and medical topics. She has a diploma in the History of Medicine from the Society of Apothecaries. The Knife Man is her first book.

    About Wendy Moore

    Wendy Moore is a writer and journalist specializing in health and medical topics. She has a diploma in the History of Medicine from the Society of Apothecaries. The Knife Man is her first book.

    Product Details

    Category: Science | Historical Figure Biographies & Memoirs

    Paperback | $16.00
    Published by Broadway Books
    Sep 12, 2006 | 352 Pages | 5-1/2 x 8-1/4 | ISBN 9780767916530

    Category: Science | Historical Figure Biographies & Memoirs

    Ebook | $7.99
    Published by Broadway Books
    Dec 18, 2007 | 352 Pages | ISBN 9780307419453

    Category: Science | Historical Figure Biographies & Memoirs | Audiobooks

    Audiobook Download | $22.50
    Published by Random House Audio
    Apr 28, 2015 | 808 Minutes | ISBN 9781101922033

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    Praise

    Praise for the Knife Man:

    “The surgeon John Hunter (1728–93) is not a well-known name outside specialist circles, although that scandalous situation should be corrected by Wendy Moore’s marvelous biography.” —The Times Higher

    “Definitely not for the squeamish, Moore’s visceral portrait of this complex and brilliant man offers a wonderful insight into sickness, suffering, and surgery in the 18th century.” —The Guardian (UK)

    “Moore’s feel for pace and narrative is impeccable. Her book contains just the right amount of background scenery to bring Hunter alive without swamping him.… She is, at last, the biographer Hunter deserves.” —The Independent

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