Medicine: Perspectives in History and Art
http://www.100md.com
《新英格兰医药杂志》
Robert Greenspan, a nephrologist in northern Virginia, is an avid collector of medical antiques. He has one of the finest and largest privately held collections of old medical instruments and related paraphernalia. His Web site (www.collectmedicalantiques.com) displays ancient paintings and instruments arranged according to topic — blood letting, diagnostic instruments, and Civil War medicine, among others. In addition to a beautiful on-screen exhibit of what must be only a fraction of his collection, he gives visitors to the site tips on how to begin a collection and describes how he began his own in 1974, with the purchase of a first edition of Osler's The Principles and Practice of Medicine.
Greenspan now shows us what is probably most of his collection in this splendidly produced book. The heavy stock is glossy, the colors are vivid, and the photographs are sharp and demonstrative. Within its covers is all that you could imagine about medical memorabilia, from an ivory anatomical manikin of a reclining woman to a frightful-looking clamp for the prevention of masturbation (delicately referred to as a "spermatorrhoea ring"). There are also numerous reproductions of paintings and drawings, many from other collections or museums. No attribution or provenance is provided in the text for any of these copies of paintings, engravings, and other artworks. A list of sources is hidden in the back of the book, but this arrangement is awkward — it is not easy to discern within the body of the text what Greenspan owns and what he borrowed to embellish the book. This fault aside, Greenspan has given us a beautifully illustrated stroll through the history of medicine.
(Figure)
Large German Amputation Saw, circa 1540.
Courtesy of Dr. Robert E. Greenspan.
The book's 12 sections do not constitute a systematic history but take their origin from Greenspan's collection of artifacts, ranging from anatomical models and an embalming pump (in the section on anatomy) to Dr. Scott's magnetic hairbrush (in the section on quackery). Between these extremes are vivid images concerning surgery, obstetrics and gynecology, urology, ophthalmology, medicine, pharmacy, and dentistry. The clearly written text amplifies the images with commentary and lengthy quotations and anecdotes (an entire paragraph tells us about the cure of Louis XIV's "fistula-in-ano" and the way the king rewarded the surgeon). There is an excellent, balanced discussion of the discovery of anesthesia, accompanied by a dramatic painting showing Dr. John Collins Warren and assistants (all in street clothes) about to operate on an etherized patient at Massachusetts General Hospital. The images of mastectomy without anesthesia are shocking. One can also see instruments used to destroy an infant during labor when its head was too large or the mother's pelvis too small; hand-painted artificial eyes; René La?nnec's stethoscope; a bottle that contained cough medicine made with heroin; and a 16th-century arrow remover. Richard Bright's 1836 description of renal failure, facing a hand-colored print showing the patient's kidney at autopsy, is reproduced at length.
In preparing this book, which weighs more than 6 lb, Greenspan had no intention of writing a comprehensive, scholarly history of medicine; as he states at the outset, "Some of the most historically significant events are not included, nor is there a complete list of medical instrumentation and art." His book is for browsers, the curious, and collectors of medical antiques. It is a coffee-table book that will be picked up, leafed through, and admired over and over again.
Robert S. Schwartz, M.D.(By Robert E. Greenspan. 5)
Greenspan now shows us what is probably most of his collection in this splendidly produced book. The heavy stock is glossy, the colors are vivid, and the photographs are sharp and demonstrative. Within its covers is all that you could imagine about medical memorabilia, from an ivory anatomical manikin of a reclining woman to a frightful-looking clamp for the prevention of masturbation (delicately referred to as a "spermatorrhoea ring"). There are also numerous reproductions of paintings and drawings, many from other collections or museums. No attribution or provenance is provided in the text for any of these copies of paintings, engravings, and other artworks. A list of sources is hidden in the back of the book, but this arrangement is awkward — it is not easy to discern within the body of the text what Greenspan owns and what he borrowed to embellish the book. This fault aside, Greenspan has given us a beautifully illustrated stroll through the history of medicine.
(Figure)
Large German Amputation Saw, circa 1540.
Courtesy of Dr. Robert E. Greenspan.
The book's 12 sections do not constitute a systematic history but take their origin from Greenspan's collection of artifacts, ranging from anatomical models and an embalming pump (in the section on anatomy) to Dr. Scott's magnetic hairbrush (in the section on quackery). Between these extremes are vivid images concerning surgery, obstetrics and gynecology, urology, ophthalmology, medicine, pharmacy, and dentistry. The clearly written text amplifies the images with commentary and lengthy quotations and anecdotes (an entire paragraph tells us about the cure of Louis XIV's "fistula-in-ano" and the way the king rewarded the surgeon). There is an excellent, balanced discussion of the discovery of anesthesia, accompanied by a dramatic painting showing Dr. John Collins Warren and assistants (all in street clothes) about to operate on an etherized patient at Massachusetts General Hospital. The images of mastectomy without anesthesia are shocking. One can also see instruments used to destroy an infant during labor when its head was too large or the mother's pelvis too small; hand-painted artificial eyes; René La?nnec's stethoscope; a bottle that contained cough medicine made with heroin; and a 16th-century arrow remover. Richard Bright's 1836 description of renal failure, facing a hand-colored print showing the patient's kidney at autopsy, is reproduced at length.
In preparing this book, which weighs more than 6 lb, Greenspan had no intention of writing a comprehensive, scholarly history of medicine; as he states at the outset, "Some of the most historically significant events are not included, nor is there a complete list of medical instrumentation and art." His book is for browsers, the curious, and collectors of medical antiques. It is a coffee-table book that will be picked up, leafed through, and admired over and over again.
Robert S. Schwartz, M.D.(By Robert E. Greenspan. 5)