A Doctor's Life: A Visual History of Doctors and Nurses Through the Ages

Rating:
Summary: A Neat and Visually Appealing Book
Review: A Doctor's Life chronicles in a very brief sense the evolution of medicine from Roman doctors in 50 A.D. to modern surgeons. The subtitle of the book is A Visual History of Doctors and Nurses Through the Ages, and this is perhaps a more apt description of the book. Every page is filled with large color photos of people dressed in authentic clothing and/or various items of medicine and medical tools used throughout history. It focuses solely on western medicine except for two pages devoted to Native American medicine men. In the back, there is a glossary of some medical terms and a timeline of pertinent events in medical history. This book is too large to fit on a conventional book shelf, and it only numbers 48 pages. It would make a good coffee table book. Because of its brevity, it does not go into the greatest detail in the periods it describes. One can easily read tough the book in one sitting. The greatest benefit is the wealth of pictures. Along with the pictures, the short descriptions in each section give the reader a sense of what medicine was and how it was practiced through the ages.