"Delightfully horrifying."--Popular Science
One of Mental Floss's Best Books of 2018
One of Science Friday's Best Science Books of 2018

This wryly humorous collection of stories about bizarre medical treatments and cases offers a unique portrait of a bygone era in all its jaw-dropping weirdness.

A puzzling series of dental explosions beginning in the nineteenth century is just one of many strange tales that have long lain undiscovered in the pages of old medical journals. Award-winning medical historian Thomas Morris delivers one of the most remarkable, cringe-inducing collections of stories ever assembled. Witness Mysterious Illnesses (such as the Rhode Island woman who peed through her nose), Horrifying Operations (1781: A French soldier in India operates on his own bladder stone), Tall Tales (like the "amphibious infant" of Chicago, a baby that could apparently swim underwater for half an hour), Unfortunate Predicaments (such as that of the boy who honked like a goose after inhaling a bird's larynx), and a plethora of other marvels.

Beyond a series of anecdotes, these painfully amusing stories reveal a great deal about the evolution of modern medicine. Some show the medical profession hopeless in the face of ailments that today would be quickly banished by modern drugs; but others are heartening tales of recovery against the odds, patients saved from death by the devotion or ingenuity of a conscientious doctor.

However embarrassing the ailment or ludicrous the treatment, every case in The Mystery of the Exploding Teeth tells us something about the knowledge (and ignorance) of an earlier age, along with the sheer resilience of human life.

• We started tracking this book on March 18, 2018.
• This book was $12.99 when we started tracking it.
• The price of this book has changed 82 times in the past 2,531 days.
• The current price of this book is $11.99 last checked 3 hours ago.
• This lowest price this book has been offered at in the past six months is $10.99.
• This lowest price this book has been offered at in the past year is $9.99.
• The lowest price to date was $4.99 last reached on February 8, 2021.
• This book has been $4.99 5 times since we started tracking it.
• The highest price to date was $14.99 last reached on December 13, 2024.
• This book has been $14.99 7 times since we started tracking it.

• Humor & Entertainment

• Text-to-Speech: Disabled
• Lending: Disabled
• File Size: 12,048 KB