Rough Medicine

Surgeons at Sea in the Age of Sail

By: Joan Druett

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Hardcover | 4 October 2000 | Edition Number 1

At a Glance

Hardcover
282 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
16.0 x 23.4 x 2.4

Hardcover

$305.00

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"Killing whales is sometimes attended with bad accidents." -- Dr. William Dalton, surgeon of the"Phoenix"
Scurvy. Amputation. Tropical disease. Irritable captains. Mutinous crews. Such were the trials facing the men who shipped out as doctors on South Seas whalers in the early nineteenth century.
Having earned a medical degree and a certain station in society, what type of person would sign on for a dangerous three-year voyage to the other side of the globe? What types of medicines and surgical tools did these men have at their disposal? What sort of people did they encounter on remote South Seas islands? Using diaries, journals and correspondence, Joan Druett introduces us to extraordinary characters like the tattooed Dr. John Coulter, forced into tribal warfare by the natives of the Marquesas Islands (later a successful obstetrician back in England), and the venal Charles Frederick Winslow, who set up a seaman's hospital on Maui and managed to bilk the U.S. government out of a sizeable sum. Rich with fascinating detail, Druett chronicles medicine at sea from the dawn to the demise of the South Seas whaling trade.
A lively and often darkly humorous tale, "Rough Medicine" is sure to please fans of Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin series and Dava Sobel's "Longitude."

Industry Reviews

"This book is literally a page-turner - I could not put it down - filled with new windows on history, technology and personal experience. It can be highly recommended." -John Townley," International Journal of Maritime History "Druett offers us a vivid sense of shipboard life in her descriptions of medicines, surgical tools, the tumult of a whale hunt and treatment of such common ailments as dysentery, dropsy, syphilis, scurvy and insanity." -"The Arizona Republic "Druett showcases excellent research with generous quotations...those who enjoyed Patrick O'Brian's eye for historical detail will delight in Druett." -Publisher's Weekly "Carefully researched, elegantly illustrated with line drawings, and vividly written in lucid prose, this wonderful book is pleasing to leaf through and rewarding to read. It should be equally interesting to historians and interested laypersons." -Choice "The book is peppered with amusing anecdotes.." -Fiona A. Macdonald, The Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at UCL

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