The Mysteries Within: A Surgeon Reflects on Medical Myths

Rating:
Summary: A History of Medical Thought and Lore
Review: "The Mysteries Within" is a book about the myths that have developed in medicine over the last several millenia. In it Dr. Nuland discusses the evolution of thought concerning various organs. He also goes into detail describing where some modern words and expressions have come from. Interspersed with these histories are an occasional jewel from his career as a surgeon. Overall it is a good book, although it seems slightly slow at times.

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant concept, but poorly executed...
Review: I love Nuland's writing, and could spend hours meandering through his explanations of medical phenomena. But this particular book was either poorly conceived or shoddily edited, because I found it much more difficult to get through than his usual lively mix of clinical experience and academic background.

There's just no balance here. That usually-delightful mix is completely absent, traded in for clumps of one or the other. He'll give a couple of tantalizingly tabloid case histories, some personal information about his own medical training, then chapters and chapters of academic detail. It just doesn't work for me.

Still fascinating as a glimpse of where medical thought is coming from, and as usual, Nuland is brilliant at pointing out the vestiges of old ideas and anachronisms even within modern medicine. But as the title suggests, this really is a surgeon "reflecting," with seemingly no particular direction, intention, or goal.

Too bad, though, because there's a lot of fascinating potential here.

Rating:
Summary: Thriller Mystery And Medical History
Review: This is a remarkable book written by a gifted surgeon, who wields a pen perhaps a touch less brilliantly than a scalpel. The only reason I say less, is that after reading one specific part of the book, I was overwhelmed with what can happen in an operating room. This is why I used the word thriller for the book, but other sections are as mysterious as Holmes versus Moriarty, and the historical perspective is brilliantly shared and summarized without losing the cadence of the book.

Dr. Nuland with his third work, "The Mysteries Within", brings a view of medicine unlike any I have read before. He takes you through a procedure that he claims brought dumb luck to the operating table for both he and his patient, luck that saved a life that was almost a guaranteed loss. He shares the inspiration that Residents and Interns bring with their youth, and calculated daring. Do you know what a bezoars is? I didn't until I read this book. And if the detective work that solved this enigma does not leave you marveling at just how wide and varied a surgeon's skills must be, I don't know what will. The example for you is perhaps in another section of the book.

He and the men and women he speaks of are remarkable, yet he always puts what is known and observable into relation with less tangible ideas. Whether it is religious faith, or faith in the Doctor or a pill, or hope in the unproven, he is never dismissive. The only intolerance he shows is for those who lack the openness of mind that welcomes all possibility, or deals in absolutes. His statements on religion and science and how they legitimately coexist, are not incongruous, and perhaps essential to each other, is stated as eloquently as I have ever heard the issue summarized.

It is rare person who can reach inside the ill, the broken bodies, and the lives that should end but do not. The pressure they operate under is explained, but I believe true understanding is left only for those who are the participants. Hopefully most will never need the skills and the "luck" that you will experience in this book. However in the event you or someone you care for does, hope that it will be a surgeon like this man, the men and women he learned from, or perhaps those he has taught.

Unconditionally recommended!