Adventures in human being : a grand tour from the cranium to the calcaneum

Summary: In Adventures in Human Being, Gavin Francis leads readers on a journey into the hidden pathways of the human body, offering a guide to its inner workings and a celebration of its marvels. Drawing on his experiences as a surgeon, ER specialist, and family physician, Francis blends stories from the clinic with episodes from medical history, philosophy, and literature to describe the body in sickness and in health, in living and in dying. At its heart, Adventures in Human Being is a meditation on what it means to be human. Poetic, eloquent, and profoundly perceptive, this book will transform the way you view your body.

Record details

ISBN: 9780465079681
ISBN: 0465079687
Physical Description: print
xi, 252 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm
Publisher: New York : Basic Books, a member of the Perseus Books Group, [2015]

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Formatted Contents Note:

A note on confidentiality -- Prologue -- Brain. Neurosurgery of the soul ; Seizures, sanctity & psychiatry -- Head. Eye : a renaissance of vision ; Face : beautiful palsy ; Inner ear : voodoo & vertigo -- Chest. Lung : the breath of life ; Heart : on seagull murmurs, ebb & flow ; Breast : two views on healing -- Upper limb. Shoulder : arms & armor ; Wrist & hand : punched, cut & crucified -- Abdomen. Kidney : the ultimate gift ; Liver : a fairy-tale ending ; Large bowel & rectum : a magnificent work of art -- Pelvis. Genitalia : of making babies ; Womb : thresholds of life & death ; Afterbirth : eat it, burn it, bury it under a tree -- Lower limb. Hip : Jacob & the angel ; Feet & toes : footsteps in the basement -- Epilogue.