Butchering Art

Explore the dark and dangerous world of nineteenth-century surgery with The Butchering Art. Follow the development of surgery through early operating theaters and learn about the brutal methods used by surgeons before anesthesia. Discover how a young Quaker surgeon named Joseph Lister changed the course of history by discovering the source of all infection: germs. Lindsey Fitzharris recounts Lister's discoveries in gripping detail, while introducing the brilliant and criminal figures of the time. This eerie and illuminating work celebrates the triumph of science and medicine in delivering us into the modern world.