The Mystery of the Exploding Teeth by Thomas Morris

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.