Andreas Vesalius 1514-1564 By Stephen N. Joffe, M.D. Vesalius was the foremost pioneer of modern anatomy. Born in Brussels, he came from a family of physicians. Educated in Louvain, he studied medicine in Montpelier and Paris, returning to Louvain to teach anatomy. In 1535 he went to France to be an army surgeon to King Charles V and two years later became a professor of anatomy in Padua, Italy. Subsequently he became a physician to the court of Philip II of Spain. On a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, he received a call to return to Padua to occupy chair of Fallopius. In a storm leading to a shipwreck and subsequent death on the Isle of Zante, Vesalius was buried there in an unmarked grave in 1564. This marked the end of the 'prince of anatomy.' Vesalius' book De Humani Corporus Fabrica published in Basel in 1543, contributes one of the greatest treasures of western civilization and culture. With its companion volume the Epitome, began the modern observational science and research.

Like many new general practitioners in the 1950s, Dr. Anthoy Betts faced few real opportunities under the new British National Health Care system. So, with little more than a suitcase, he and his wife and two babies set off for the U.S.A. Moving to rural Maine in the middle of January, they quickly learned practical lessons about snow tires, long johns, dry gas, and the distinction between "green" and "white" firewood. Dr. Betts also found that his new practice sometimes required procedures not endorsed in any modern medical text-for example, home births took place atop a thick layer of newspapers spread on the floor in front of the wood stove! He was expected to be on call at all times, though he learned that if he hung a "Gone Fishing" sign on his door nobody would question his absence. And he also quickly learned not to trust verbal directions to houses on back-country roads. Despite the differences of language and social custom, the young urban Englishman was welcomed by most of his patients and fellow doctors-even sharing an office with Dr. Jack Hornberger, the real Hawkeye and author of M*A*S*H, newly returned from Korea to build his own practice. Dr. Betts's sense of humor helped him adapt to the strange culture he encountered in Maine. And it is that same wry amusement that makes this memoir so immensely enjoyable.

Bruce Ross knew something was wrong. He felt displaced and isolated from friends, family, and society. He had no one to turn to, and so he tried to cope with it himself. The fact that he had a disease called depression never entered his mind. He, like so many people, thought that only other people suffered from depression, not someone who appeared to be a well-adjusted, middle class person.

"From Dawn to Dusk to Daylight" chronicles Ross's journey and struggles with depression, from his high school years until middle age. During this time, his promising start in life transformed into a dusk, in which Ross lived twenty-four hours of each day in a gloomy and unsettled existence. With eloquence and charm, he recaptures the joys of his childhood in Dartmouth, growing up with his buddies. Gradually, those times faded, and he found himself in the middle of his teenage years and the beginnings of his depression.

Ross lived with the pain of depression and its "twin sister," Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), for more than thirty-five years before achieving a breakthrough thanks to the experimental procedure known as Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS). This exciting advancement in medical science shows great promise for depression sufferers in North America and around the world.

"From Dawn to Dusk to Daylight" is the candid and revealing story of the trials and tribulations of living with depression and the relief DBS finally brought.

Jamie Schneider's life changed with one phone call in February of 2010. After months of sensing something was not right with her body, Jamie was diagnosed with stage IV ovarian cancer, sending her on a relentless search for information about cancer and for ideas on how to survive the devastating news. Facing her diagnosis, Jamie already knew her life would never be the same. Whether she liked it or not, she was now immersed in the dark side of cancer.

As this ancient rogue force claimed its space in her body and she became a stranger in an unfamiliar land, Jamie details how her relentless desire to understand created a voice of validation. She walked through a shadowy world of cancer that left her somewhere between alive and dead. Now Jamie exposes the harsh reality of her experience, the reactions of her friends and family, the treatment and devastating losses, the yo-yo of hope and hopelessness, and the painful paradox of living while dying.

In "Who Will Make the Pies When I'm Gone?" Jamie shares a powerful, honest glimpse into her world as she struggles to make this new limited version of her life meaningful after a cancer diagnosis.

A Nurse for Boer and British during the Boer War
The author of this book, a young Belgian woman, was a vocational nurse from an early age. As a child she had assisted in caring for the wounded of the Franco-Prussian War. Serving as a nurse in a private hospital she answered the call for trained medical help by joining the staff of an ambulance sent out to South Africa by the Dutch and Belgian Red Cross. She worked in the war zone especially caring for Boer wounded and sick until the summer of 1900 when she was recalled to Europe upon the sudden death of her husband. After quickly settling her affairs she felt compelled once again to return to Africa, on this occasion volunteering to serve as a Nursing Sister caring primarily for British sick and wounded. This remarkable woman tells her story across time providing the reader with a vivid view of her humanitarian work in two opposing camps and on both sides of the lines, thus giving the modern reader a possibly impartial but inside view of the protagonists of the Boer War.

Purchase one of 1st World Library's Classic Books and help support our free internet library of downloadable eBooks. Visit us online at www.1stWorldLibrary.ORG - - ON the death of Fleeming Jenkin, his family and friends determined to publish a selection of his various papers; by way of introduction, the following pages were drawn up; and the whole, forming two considerable volumes, has been issued in England. In the States, it has not been thought advisable to reproduce the whole; and the memoir appearing alone, shorn of that other matter which was at once its occasion and its justification, so large an account of a man so little known may seem to a stranger out of all proportion. But Jenkin was a man much more remarkable than the mere bulk or merit of his work approves him. It was in the world, in the commerce of friendship, by his brave attitude towards life, by his high moral value and unwearied intellectual effort, that he struck the minds of his contemporaries. His was an individual figure, such as authors delight to draw, and all men to read of, in the pages of a novel. His was a face worth painting for its own sake. If the sitter shall not seem to have justified the portrait, if Jenkin, after his death, shall not continue to make new friends, the fault will be altogether mine.

Have you ever been far away from city lights and noticed the stars like diamonds in the sky? Many people have, and have been deeply moved and amazed by the experience. "Touching the Universe" chronicles the adventures of author Steve Coe as he shares his love of the night sky. Coe is willing to travel far and wide to view new vistas of the universe.

Each chapter in "Touching the Universe" contains Coe's observations of the night sky on each of the twenty nights he recalls in detail here. To set the scene for each of the nights, he discusses what led up to choosing each night; then he explains what he observed and learned as he perfected his observation skills.

Share with Coe the joy of getting away from the city lights and setting up a telescope under dark skies. Follow a comet as it brightens and forms a tail; see a star cluster or nebula that will take your breath away. Viewing the stars and galaxies that inhabit the night sky provides peace and calm in a way that isn't available anywhere else.

Darwin takes a look at the life of this incredible man, from his birth, his ground-breaking publications and far-flung travels, Darwinism and his theories on evolution, all the way to his final days. Over 160 stunning images and illustrations are included within Darwin, ranging from personal diary entries (such as those he made when deciding whether to marry or not), letters and handwritten notes, as well as sketches from Darwin's famous works. Revealing the famous scientist's life in compelling detail, Darwin covers not only his scientific career and On the Origin of Species but his personal struggles also, allowing us to see what truly made the man.

Brenda Currey Lewis was a typical, active child. But when she was seven years old her life changed dramatically. Generalized dystonia (dystonia musculorum deformans) turned her muscles against her. This rare neurological movement disorder causes muscle groups to tug and twist the body into abnormal postures. Brenda started walking on the outer edge of her right foot, and within a year she was wheelchair bound. The symptoms gradually spread through most of her body. For almost forty years Brenda has experienced uncontrollable muscle movements that have wreaked havoc in her body, but not her spirit. This is a story of resilience in the face of a little-known, confusing, and debilitating condition. The author takes you on a journey from skating rinks to surgical suites, from bicycles to wheelchairs, from doubt to determination. Brenda's quirky sense of humour makes this candid account of life with dystonia a thought-provoking and an entertaining read.

"Is medical education's mission to increase the earning capacity of the profession or is it to improve the public welfare and to advance medical knowledge?" To answer this question, the author has let the "great ones" of medicine's past address the reader directly. Flexner divided MDs into two groups: those in academic medicine and those in private practice and concluded that the two groups are inherently at war with one another. And, Flexner observed: without the faculty controlling patient beds, "the school cannot even organize a clinical faculty in any proper sense of the term." The author humorously discusses problems encountered in pursuing these lofty goals. Stories of growing up in South Alabama--getting a medial education--hospital work--a tour of duty at NIH--and thirty years in the Texas Medical Center spice these fascinating life-experiences.

Stories about American healthcare have been told in print, on film, on television and radio, and in every form imaginable. The story of American healthcare, however, has never been told in quite the same way as in Dr. Blair Beebe's Doctor Tales. Through lyrical and compelling narrative, Dr. Beebe uses fourteen tales to tell his story of how our healthcare structure evolved to become the most advanced, and problematic, system in the world. Beginning with the viewpoint of an impressionable twenty-one-year-old first-year medical student, he continues with numerous patient encounters in hospital settings, and ends with a fictional community's response to an avian influenza epidemic transposed from a real outbreak in the Far East. Doctor Tales draws from the lives of real doctors, nurses, and patients to show the changes that have occurred during the second half of the twentieth century that have led to spectacular new treatments, and equally stunning shortfalls in healthcare.