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This book explores aspects of medical history that are usually overlooked by medical historians. It begins with anthropologic literature and accounts of the early explorers which describe sophisticated medical treatments and wound care by Native Americans that were superior to European practices at the time. The book also shows that the Samhita Sushruta, an ancient Indian medical text, and one of Socrates’ dialogues answer the age-old question of Hippocrates’ dictum against abortion and operating for bladder stones. It then dwells at length on the University of Edinburgh, the shining center of medical education from the Middle Ages to the 20th century, and provides biographical sketches to trace the history of American surgery from the early 19th century to the age of surgical staplers and minimally invasive operations. In addition, the book details the author’s experience with the greedy for-profit health care system and super specialization, providing the basis for suggestions to reform medical education and a not-for-profit, universal, non-governmental, regionalized system for the delivery of health care. Overall, the book will enhance the education of medical students and appeal to physicians with an interest in history.

Red Tide is the story of Peter, a shy, dreamy city boy, who learns the beauty of nature and copes with his mother’s illness while living with his grandfather on an island off the coast of Florida. His grandfather, a retired doctor, and Andrea, a girl with mischievous eyes, teach him about the animals that live on the island. He overcomes bullying by his new schoolmates and fear of the out-of-doors with a series of adventures. His grandfather teaches him to fish and how to sail a boat. With his newly gained confidence, he helps save a patch of wetland from developers and becomes an activist to protect the environment. He and Andrea discover dead fish and birds on the beach that were poisoned by red tide. When he learns that red tide, a microorganism in the water that is deadly to marine life, is stimulated by agricultural fertilizers, he writes a letter to the governor and encloses a dead fish. The dead fish gets him in trouble with the police but he becomes a hero to his classmates.

Reconstruction: Heal or Kill takes place in a small Illinois town in 1871, portraying life in rural America. The novel reveals the prejudices against freed slaves during the post-Civil War era, when the KKK was terrorizing freed slaves. Tom, a teenage boy, had planned on a life fighting Indians, until a new doctor, trained in Edinburgh, arrives on a steamboat and convinces him that healing is better than killing. The doctor, an ex-Union soldier, is an expert pistol shot, drinks whisky, and plays cards. The townspeople reject him until he saves a friend of President Grant. Tom now aspires to be a doctor, but his plans are thwarted when his father dies and he is sent to an orphanage. He escapes and nearly freezes to death. A family of freed slaves nurse him back to health. The Klan and the local sheriff have been terrorizing the family to get their land. Tom becomes the doctor’s assistant, studying medicine by digging up a skeleton to learn anatomy. He is also there to protect a freed slave from lynching. Bullets fly when the doctor takes on the leader of the Klan. Tom and his friend break up a Klan meeting, but in the melee, the Klan murders a Negro boy. In the end, Tom and the doctor operate on the Klan leader for a gunshot wound, showing that a doctor must first be a healer

The Deadly Blue Diamond, a fast-paced thriller, pits a young surgeon against vicious mobsters, crooked cops, and Chicago politicians. Little Louie, who killed his first man at age fifteen, organized a robbery to steal the Blue Diamond, a power symbol, that belonged to Al Capone. The heist goes bad. Rooky cops shoot Louie’s punch-drunk accomplice after he swallowed the diamond. A young surgeon, who lost his confidence in the Korean War, operates for the gunshot, but doesn’t find the diamond. The patient dies. The cops and a big-time politician claim the surgeon stole the diamond. The surgeon and a sexy reporter steal the body from the morgue to retrieve the diamond, but the hit man shoots a cop and kidnaps the reporter, the surgeon, and the corpse. The surgeon does an autopsy with a switchblade, finds the diamond, and stabs the mobster. The chase is on, through the streets of Chicago into Bubbly Creek and onto storm-tossed Lake Michigan. The reporter uses her charms to lay hands on the diamond.

Missing in Action is the sequence to Reconstruction: Heal or Kill. By 1885, the army had subdued the Plains Indians, but Geronimo’s Apaches were on the loose. They raided, looted, and murdered along the border between Arizona and Mexico and disappeared as if by magic. The army could not find the Apaches, let alone defeat them. Tom Slocum, a doctor’s apprentice in Reconstruction: Heal or Kill, has become a skilled surgeon. When his wife dies and his best friend is reported missing in action, Tom sets off, with Zeke, his teenage sidekick, to find his friend. During their journey down the Mississippi, Tom encounters crooked card sharks and an exploding steamboat. Zeke finds the girl who wears nothing but red bloomers, but gets drunk and loses his money. When they arrive at Fort Bowie in the Arizona territory, Tom becomes a contract surgeon. He operates on soldiers and Indians, doesn’t believe in killing, but uses his pistol when necessary. Indian myths and rumors lead him deep into Mexico to find his friend. When captured by a Mexican colonel, he, along with some Indian friends, fights to escape. He is there when Geronimo surrenders, Tom’s friend says, “This is the end of the wild west.”

Comprehensive history of Boys and Girls athletics from 1905-2004 at City High School in Iowa City, Iowa. Author was a 36 year teacher and coach at City High School.

The previous diaries of Arthur Conan Doyle tell of the shadowy real life Sherlock Holmes, a medical school dropout. While in the laboratory of Dr. Joseph Bell, a brilliant Edinburgh surgeon, Holmes learned anatomy, surgery, observation and deduction. These skills and his ability to solve crimes led to his recruitment by the British secret service. In this the last of three diaries, Doyle recounts a series of murders and the pursuit of a sinister Russian assassin from Edinburgh to the Yosemite Valley in California. When the case, involving a California millionaire and Chinese tongs becomes desperate, the British secret service sent Sherlock Holmes. The case ended in his death but the great detective lives on in the novels by Arthur Conan Doyle.

Two Scottish Tales of Medical Compassion is a collection of two beloved short stories, "Rab and his Friends" and "A Doctor of the Old School," and a brand new history of the Edinburgh School of Medicine, all of which emphasize the importance of compassion and humanity in the medical field. "Rab and his Friends" is the story of a young apprentice who watches a grueling surgery and is struck by the kindness of the attending physician. "A Doctor of the Old School" is about a Highland country doctor who devotes his life to caring for others. Both reflect the type of doctor that was trained at the Edinburgh School and the ideals taught there. The commentary by Dr. Raffensperger, "A Brief History of the Edinburgh School of Medicine," not only gives perspective for the stories and a background of the authors and characters, but also emphasizes how the Edinburgh principles of compassion furthered the science of medicine. These stories and the lessons they teach are valuable tools for any modern physician to rely on. JOHN BROWN, M.D. (1810-1882) was a well-known Scottish doctor and writer from Edinburgh. He attended the medical school at the University of Edinburgh before becoming apprentice to James Syme at the Minto House Hospital. His experiences at the hospital influenced his writing, including "Rab and his Friends," the short stories in his book Horae Subsecivae, and others. IAN MACLAREN (1850-1907) was the pen name of Highland-born John Watson. Watson studied for the ministry at the University of Edinburgh and at Tubingen in Germany. In addition to serving at the Parish of Logielmond in Perthshire and the Sefton Park Church in Liverpool, he was well known as a writer and speaker, culminating in several speaking tours in the United States. His works include "A Doctor of the Old School," Beside the Bonnie Briar Bush, and The Days of Auld Lang Syne. JOHN RAFFENSPERGER, M.D. was a surgeon-in-chief at the Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago and a professor of surgery at Northwestern University. He has authored surgical textbooks, a history of the Cook County Hospital, a collection of short stories, and a "surgical thriller." He currently lives in Sanibel Island, Florida.

The history of medicine and surgery is well documented, but this volume offers the first specific exploration of the treatment of and attitudes towards children with injuries and birth defects through the ages. Popular thought holds that children in ancient times with birth defects faced a short life of abandonment or neglect. Examination of written records from ancient Egypt, India, Greece, and Islam, however, shows that physicians and surgeons have attempted to find remedies to cure ailing youths from the beginning of recorded medical history. These essays document the origins of children's surgery, chronicle the history of children's surgery into modern times, and explore the treatment of the most common visceral birth defects. With contributing authors offering perspectives from a variety of cultures, this extraordinary collection will interest not only medical professionals, but also historians and others in the child care field.

Here is the first of the “lost” diaries of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, written in 1878 while he was a nineteen-year-old student at the University of Edinburgh Medical School. This rollicking story of high adventure begins with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle as the clerk for the legendary Doctor Joseph Bell-who became the real-life inspiration for the world's most famous literary detective, Sherlock Holmes. This diary details how Doyle and Dr. Bell journey to America on a secret forensic mission to solve a string of grisly and mysterious murders. Peopled with Doyle's real-life contemporaries-including JM Barrie and Robert Louis Stevenson, both of whom attended the University of Edinburgh with Doyle, it is an exciting mix of murder, mystery, literary history, and humor sure to please Sherlock Holmes fans everywhere!