The Knife Man

By Holly Tucker

Coming up next week is a guest post from Wendy Hunter, who will be talking about 18th century domestic violence, in conjunction with her new book Wedlock. I came across Wendy's fabulous work about a year ago, when I read her The Knife Man: Blood, Body Snatching, and the Birth of Modern Surgery.

THE KNIFE MAN is a biography of the 18th century John Hunter, who is often referred to as the "Father of Surgery." The book has been praised far and wide for its spot-on presentations of what early dissection classrooms and surgical theaters would have been like several hundred years ago. I, for one, will never be able to visit Covent Garden in London again without scanning the buildings in search of the exact space where the Hunter brothers performed their countless dissections. Wendy's chilling chapter on the negotiations that happened in prisons with family members of the soon to be hanged is well worth the read.

As regular Wonders and Marvels readers know, the website's pages are frequently home to inquiries about early surgery. If your nerves are steadied and you're not prone to queasiness, head over to the surgery articles grouped HERE.

And for those who can't get enough of this gory stuff, may I also recommend:

Dream Anatomy, an online exhibit at the National Library of Medicine

Morbid Anatomy, a magnificent and smart website on historical anatomies