What would at first appear to be a collection of entertaining anecdotes about some weird-sounding, even stomach-churning old remedies is in fact much more: a fascinating glimpse into the evolution of medical traditions. The Root-Bernsteins—he's a MacArthur fellow and physiologist (Michigan State Univ.), she's an award-winning writer of history- -have selected only those treatments that have been well validated by current medical practice. Their thesis is that thousands of years of experimentation have led to effective treatments in every folk culture around the world and that review of these practices can ``prime the pump of medical innovation.'' In addition to the honey, mud, and maggots of the title, they describe such other old-time cures as drinking urine, licking wounds, blood-letting, and bathing in mineral springs. While not advocating a return to the old ways, they show what scientific research has learned about the therapeutic properties of urine and saliva, how phlebotomy remains appropriate for certain disorders, and how deep-water immersion is used in physical medicine. Surprisingly, some once-popular therapies that one might assume had been long abandoned are still around. Leeches are used today to remove stagnant blood in tissue transplants, and maggot therapy (sometimes delicately referred to as ``biosurgery'') is an effective means of cleaning up gangrenous wounds. The authors' discussions of circumcision and contraception reveal much about the links between culture and biology. Issuing clear caveats against the uncritical adoption of folk or alternative medicine fads, they point out that while crackpots abound, panaceas do not exist. In keeping with their belief that medicine ought to support culturally diverse therapies, they offer some stimulating ideas on finding, evaluating, and marketing effective folk remedies. While enjoyable just for its wonderful stories, this charming and literate work casts new light on old wives' tales.
Pub Date: Oct. 20, 1997
ISBN: 0-395-82298-X
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1997
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.
The legendary booze-addled metal rocker turned reality-TV star comes clean in his tell-all autobiography.
Although brought up in the bleak British factory town of Aston, John “Ozzy” Osbourne’s tragicomic rags-to-riches tale is somehow quintessentially American. It’s an epic dream/nightmare that takes him from Winson Green prison in 1966 to a presidential dinner with George W. Bush in 2004. Tracing his adult life from petty thief and slaughterhouse worker to rock star, Osbourne’s first-person slang-and-expletive-driven style comes off like he’s casually relating his story while knocking back pints at the pub. “What you read here,” he writes, “is what dribbled out of the jelly I call my brain when I asked it for my life story.” During the late 1960s his transformation from inept shoplifter to notorious Black Sabbath frontman was unlikely enough. In fact, the band got its first paying gigs by waiting outside concert venues hoping the regularly scheduled act wouldn’t show. After a few years, Osbourne and his bandmates were touring America and becoming millionaires from their riff-heavy doom music. As expected, with success came personal excess and inevitable alienation from the other members of the group. But as a solo performer, Osbourne’s predilection for guns, drink, drugs, near-death experiences, cruelty to animals and relieving himself in public soon became the stuff of legend. His most infamous exploits—biting the head off a bat and accidentally urinating on the Alamo—are addressed, but they seem tame compared to other dark moments of his checkered past: nearly killing his wife Sharon during an alcohol-induced blackout, waking up after a bender in the middle of a busy highway, burning down his backyard, etc. Osbourne is confessional to a fault, jeopardizing his demonic-rocker reputation with glib remarks about his love for Paul McCartney and Robin Williams. The most distinguishing feature of the book is the staggering chapter-by-chapter accumulation of drunken mishaps, bodily dysfunctions and drug-induced mayhem over a 40-plus-year career—a résumé of anti-social atrocities comparable to any of rock ’n’ roll’s most reckless outlaws.
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.Pub Date: Jan. 25, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-446-56989-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2009
IN THE NEWS
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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