The Butchering Art

"Warning: She spares no detail!" —Erik Larson, bestselling author of Dead Wake
A Top 10 Science Book of Fall 2017, Publishers Weekly
"Fascinating and shocking." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
The gripping story of how Joseph Lister's antiseptic method changed medicine forever

In The Butchering Art, the historian Lindsey Fitzharris reveals the shocking world of nineteenth-century surgery on the eve of profound transformation. She conjures up early operating theaters—no place for the squeamish—and surgeons, working before anesthesia, who were lauded for their speed and brute strength. These medical pioneers knew that the aftermath of surgery was often more dangerous than their patients' afflictions, and they were baffled by the persistent infections that kept mortality rates stubbornly high. At a time when surgery couldn't have been more hazardous, an unlikely figure...