Editorial Review:

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.

Customer Reviews:

Avg. Customer Rating: 4.5 / 5.0

A Must read for Health Care Providers!:

An interesting and historical view of one very early practicitioner who realized the importance of cleanliness. Very well written and interesting for anyone intersted in history, medicine and surgery; or just a great read!

Compelling look at an extraordinary man:

A thorough, very well researched biographical account of the Georgian surgeon/naturalist/anatomist/educator John Hunter. I think anyone, after reading this book, will be amazed that Hunter's name is not more commonplace today. He was a revolutionary within surgery and medicine and worked with and trained others who shaped medicine in the U.S. and elsewhere. For anyone interested in history, science, or medicine, this is a valuable and interesting book to read.
Wendy Miller obviously went to great... more info

Scientific medicine is a new thing:

John Hunter was one of the champions who introduced scientific methods to medicine over the opposition of those who valued ideology over evidence. He fought this battle only about 225 years ago when doctors often prescribed bloodletting. John Hunter paid attention to evidence that it was sometimes best to leave gunshot wounds untreated rather than apply the remedies physicians often applied at that time. This book is fascinating and is written very well. I was shocked to learn how primitive medicine was... more info

The Knife Man:

Fantastic, intriguing, fun to read. Brings a deep respect to our progenitors and how they ever survived those "unapprised " years. It is a great tribute to the great man John Hunter.

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