It All Started With Hippocrates--A Mercifully Brief History of Medicine

by Richard Armour

A very funny and warped version of the history of medicine by the classic humorist.

Genres: Humor, History

134 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1966

About the author

Richard Armour, a college professor of English who specialized in Chaucer and the English Romantic poets, was best known as a prolific author of light verse and wacky parodies of academic scholarship. He was a professor of English at Scripps College in Claremont from 1945 to 1966.

Armour was raised in Pomona, California, where his father owned a drugstore. He graduated from Pomona College, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, then obtained his master's and Ph.D. in English literature at Harvard. He was a Harvard research fellow at the Victoria and Albert Museum library in London.

Reviews

[Karthik]

It's a day's read, and reads easy. Lots of wordplay humor but the fruits of it are reaped as at a farmer's market, the whole cart is on display but it varies from the downright unpalatable to the exquisite kind you feel fortunate to even taste! The rating I have given it is some hint as to how patiently you wait for the good lines. However, I will still pick up another book by this author for idle day's light reading.

[Holly]

My dad loved Richard Armour and had most if not all of his books, and I read every last one in the house when I was in high school. I came across this again recently and decided to reread it. I didn't care for it much. I don't know if the problem is that the text hasn't aged well, or if I lacked the sophistication as a high school student to see how mediocre this is, or a combination thereof, but meh. Maybe the satire that draws more on Armour's expertise--Twisted Tales from Shakespeare, maybe--will still be funny to me.

[Sarah Rigg]

Humor books for adults were my jam when I was a young teen. I remember thinking "Dave Barry Slept Here" was hilarious, for instance. This is in the same vein, a humorous book about the history of medicine.

[Mbuye]

Although I enjoy Richard Armour's wacky, pun-ridden humour, "Hippocrates" seemed a bit tired out after "It all Started with Eve" or "The Classics Reclassified". Not really his best, but nevertheless a hilarious and very evil journey of medical history and miracles.

[Moonkiszt]

Into medicine? Hypochondriac? It's all good. . . .start here.

[Thomas DeHart]

Every now and then there's a chuckle. I'm sure medical students and doctors would enjoy it. I thought it was fine. Super light and easy to read. Maybe I learned something. I can't remember.

[Valerie]

It doesn't really matter which of Armour's books you pick up first--I picked this one because it was one of my favorites. I especially like the footnotes in these books--for example, in a discussion of splitting rocks with vinegar in one book, Armour comments 'Vinegar was a high explosive in Hannibal's time, but not before or since.'

[Rae]

A very funny and warped version of the history of medicine by the classic humorist.