Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 The history of medicine is filled with patients who have turned up at the hospital with an embarrassing and entirely self-inflicted complaint. The human capacity for mischief, misadventure, and downright idiocy is apparently a trait that progress cannot eradicate. #2 The old sense of the word tumor is not necessarily indicating abnormal tissue growth, but a swelling of any description. This example was a cyst, and its surface eventually broke. The surgeon suspected it was an anal fistula, an anomalous channel between the end of the bowel and the skin. #3 Guillaume Dupuytren was a surgeon who lived in France in the early 1800s. He was known for his eloquence and virtuosity, and he had many landmark cases to his name. He also made mistakes, but fewer than others. #4 The heart was believed to be the seat of the emotions, the center of the human organism, and the center of life. It was natural to assume that injuring this organ would be fatal. But in the nineteenth century, cases of prolonged survival after cardiac injury were published.