The Medical Book

September 15, 2012

In this collection of one-page essays on medical advancements with facing illustrations, Pickover (The Math Book: From Pythagoras to the 57th Dimension, 250 Milestones in the History of Mathematics) touches on familiar subjects (allergies) and more esoteric ones (the ancient Chinese medical text Huangdi Neijing) and covers a variety of fields including medical art, techniques, devices old and new, drugs, surgery, and causes of disease. While the book has a roughly chronological arrangement, Pickover makes it clear that he is presenting not a comprehensive history but a selection of milestones, people, and developments that he finds interesting. Most essays include references for further reading. VERDICT The writing is lively and the topics are varied and need not be read in any particular order. Pickover intends only to give a brief glimpse of each subject and writes for a wide audience ranging from students to professionals. He achieves his goals, and his brevity and breezy style should appeal to readers used to accessing information quickly on the Internet but who are still interested in picking up a book.--Dick Maxwell, Porter Adventist Hosp. Lib., Denver

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 15, 2012
Pickover, a prolific writer and scientist, has selected 250 milestones he believes represent the most important advances in the history of medicine. This book is organized chronologically, starting with entries such as Witch doctor, Urinalysis, and Trepanation and ending with Human cloning. Each entry is just a few paragraphs on one page, with a photo or illustration on the facing page. The illustrations and photographs bring a vivid look at the people, cellular structures, and medical treatment, past and present, and add an extra dimension to the text. There is a brief bibliography for each entry located at the back of the book. A thorough index can lead a browser directly to a particular procedure, person, or topic. Cross-references appear at the end of each article to encouragement jumping around in the book, much as a reader on the Internet would surf through brief articles on several topics. This is the third in a series of books, the other two being The Math Book (2010) and The Physics Book (2011), from Pickover. The book succeeds in making the names, events, and procedures of medical history interesting to general readers. This is not a reference book per se but a work to spur the interests of young readers or to provide a brief history into varied medical research, personalities, illnesses, and treatments. There is a great deal of basic medical history to be learned herewhether the topic is cryonics, William Halsted, or sickle-cell anemia, there is solid information for any general reader, from teens to seniors. Recommended for most public libraries.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)