- Published: 1 March 2010
- ISBN: 9781845951504
- Imprint: Vintage
- Format: Paperback
- Pages: 336
- RRP: $35.00
Taking the Medicine
A Short History of Medicine’s Beautiful Idea, and our Difficulty Swallowing It
- Published: 1 March 2010
- ISBN: 9781845951504
- Imprint: Vintage
- Format: Paperback
- Pages: 336
- RRP: $35.00
For all the wizardry of modern medicine, with its bionic limbs and targeted drugs, doctors still cannot assume they have all the answers. This book offers a valuable inoculation against complacency
New Scientist
Taking The Medicine is both an assault on the myths of the infallible doctor and a history of pharmacology - the search for the one, true treatment... Burch makes a compelling case
Sunday Telegraph
Each chapter is a self-contained pleasure to read, like mini-fables on the perils of medicine
Sunday Times
Burch approaches his task with vigour and pace, exploring the therapeutic failures of doctors over the ages...there is much of interest as the story unfolds
Irish Times
A fascinating history of the development of clinical trials and the thinking behind them
Literary Review
Intriguing and informed
Tom Whipple, The Times
Twenty-five essay-chapters examine 'cures' such as aspirin and thalidomide, all with a good bedside manner
Sunday Telegraph
This is a gripping history of the blundering progress of medicine
Christopher Hirst, Independent
A fascinating and irreverent history of medicine and those who've claimed to understand it, written by an NHS doctor with searing intelligence and a lively wit
Good Book Guide
Burch leads us through an array of shocking and surprising medical practices
Financial Times