The Wine-Dark Sea Within
A Turbulent History of Blood
-
-
3.0 • 1 Rating
-
-
- $18.99
-
- $18.99
Publisher Description
A revisionist history of medicine, in which blood plays the starring role
Inspired by Homer’s description of the ebb and flow of the “wine dark sea,” the ancient Greeks conceived a back-and-forth movement of blood. That false notion, perpetuated by the influential Roman physician Galen, prevailed for fifteen hundred years until William Harvey proved that blood circulates: the heart pumps blood in one direction through the arteries and it returns through the veins. Harvey’s discovery revolutionized the life sciences by making possible an entirely new quantitative understanding of the cardiovascular system, a way of thinking on which many of our lifesaving medical interventions today depend.
In The Wine-Dark Sea Within, cardiologist Dhun Sethna argues that Harvey’s revelation inaugurated modern medicine and paved the way for groundbreaking advances from intravenous therapy, cardiac imaging, and stent insertions to bypass surgery, dialysis, and heart-lung machines.
Weaving together three thousand years of global history, following bitter feuds and epic alliances, tragic failures and extraordinary advancements, this is a provocative history by a fresh voice in popular science.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Cardiologist Sethna debuts with a comprehensive if clunky medical history of the circulatory system. Covering milestones including the early Greek thinkers who first recognized the heart as "a distinct organ" and English physician William Harvey's 1628 discovery of how blood circulates, Sethna details a millennium of advancements as well as a few wrong turns (such as Roman physician Galen's assertion that veins sprung from the liver). He describes scores of experiments—Leonardo da Vinci using a wine cask valve and live pig hearts to understand how the heart pumps blood, for example—and recounts historical controversies, such as whether the soul itself might be blood. While Sethna does a great job explaining how each discovery contributed to the modern understanding of how the heart works, his writing can be distracting ("Eccentricity and a disregard for conventions were at no time un-sympathetic to him. Among the pleasing errors of his young mind was his opinion of his own importance," he writes of surgeon Realdo Colombo), and he's prone to platitudes ("In academics, as in love, it does not do to give oneself wholly"). Still, it's an impressive story; devotees of medical history will have plenty to enjoy.
More Books Like This