The wine-dark sea within : a turbulent history of blood / Dhun H. Sethna.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Sethna, Dhun H., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Blood--Circulation--History.

Blood.

Medicine--History--Popular works.

Medicine.

Blood--Circulation.

Genre:

History.

Popular works.

Physical Description:

xx, 357 pages ; 25 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Basic Books, 2022.

Summary:

"The Wine-Dark Sea Within offers a revisionist retelling of the history of Western medicine, centered on the quest to understand the nature of blood. Physician Dhun Sethna masterfully weaves together a global story, beginning 3,000 years ago in ancient China and India, continuing through ancient Greece and Rome, the Renaissance, and the Age of Enlightenment. Blood has always been central to our understanding of how the body sustains life. And without a doubt, the most influential description of blood came from Greek physician Galen, who saw health as a function of a person's virtue. In his system, blood ebbed and flowed in the body according to one's behavior. For 1,500 years, the Galenic model of medicine, favored by the Church, reigned supreme. Then, in 1628, an English physician named William Harvey proved that blood does not ebb and flow but rather circulates around the body in a single direction. This discovery is often overlooked, but Sethna argues that it completely changed the course of medicine. Suddenly it was possible to talk about the body in purely secular terms, mechanically, as a system of pumps and pipes. With this insight, Sethna shows that blood circulation paved the way for the foundation of immunology, cardiology, biochemistry, transplant science, and metabolic science. It even influenced the development of thermodynamics and plant respiration. The Wine-Dark Sea Within is above all a story of great ideas, a story of bitter feuds and historical collaborations, backstabbing, deadly heresies and perseverance, featuring some of the world's most famous thinkers in its cast of characters: Homer, Leonardo, Descartes, Lavoisier. It is a richly detailed and provocative history, told by a stunning new voice in popular science"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Machine generated contents note: A Wine-Dark Sea Within

1. The Oriental Heritage

2. The Sea Within Us

3. Seeing Is Believing

4. The Life It Brings

5. Body Flame

6. Through the Blood Darkly

7. Knot of Veins

Wrinkles In Blood Flow

8. A Different Drumbeat

9. Prince of Physicians

10. Coming to Grips

New Hearts For Old

11. Brave New World

12. The Proper Study of Man

13. A Disinherited Mind

14. The Medical Merchants of Venice

Air And Blood

15. Hunted Heretic

16. A Eureka Moment

17. Arabian Knight

18. Who's on First?

19. Wild Sea of Troubles

Physiology Of Circles

20. Prelude to Glory

21. The Finest Hour

22. Closing the Ring

23. Ahead of the Curve

A World On Fire

24. Pride and Prejudice

25. The French Connection

26. Bad Blood

27. A Confederacy of Circulateurs

28. Once More into the Breach

"Consider the air"

29. The Goodness of Airs

30. Oxford Chemists

31. Niter, Niter, Everywhere

32. Phlogiston

33. Concerto of Airs

34. Unto This Last

Conclusion

35. In Our Time.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 315-336) and index.

ISBN:

9781541600669

1541600665

OCLC:

1275356579

Publisher Number:

99992558099