Paré was the royal surgeon at the time and was a pioneer in terms of medicine, as he refused to heed medical norms at the time due to the fact that they were often painful and useless for the patient. This is when Kean introduces the "dueling neurosurgeons": Ambroise Paré and Andreas Vesalius, both esteemed neurosurgeons at the time. It is during this second joust that Henri was whacked square in the face by his opponent's jousting pole. After jousting with Montgomery once, Henri demanded that he go a second time (which broke the laws of chivalry and good sport). The first chapter begins with Kean setting the stage of a historic jousting match between King Henri II of France and Gabriel Montgomery. In this introductory section, Kean essentially provides some background information and summarizes how the book will continue.Ĭhapter 1: The Dueling Neurosurgeons
Part I: Gross Anatomy Introduction Įach chapter begins with a rebus, a word puzzle, pertaining to the subject of the chapter. His writing shows that every breakthrough was borne of malady, injury, necessity. Kean effortlessly ties historical accounts, stories of madness and insanity, with the scientific breakthroughs that often followed. In The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons, Sam Kean travels through time with stories of startling peculiarity and incredible fascination, stories of neurological curiosities: phantom limbs, cannibalism, Siamese brains and a plethora of other strange, though equally fascinating things. The book was published in hardback on by Little, Brown and Company was at a later date released in paperback. 2.5.3 Chapter 12: The Man, the Myth, the Legend.2.5.2 Chapter 11: Left, Right, and Center.2.1.2 Chapter 1: The Dueling Neurosurgeons.