“1895. The first X-ray was performed. I’ve got no idea what the X stands for. Xylophone, maybe?”
Three hundred years ago, before CPR and defibrillators were invented — resuscitation was attempted with er, bellows through the bum. True story.
Bestselling author Adam Kay strikes again with his hilarious take on the history of medicine. This time, he invites his reader to travel back through time with him, to discover how the ancients practised medicine.
Like how the ancient Egyptians totally thought the brain was completely useless. How do we know this? They removed the organs when they mummified the dead but only stuffed the heart back in (for the afterlife🫀).
“And how about the brain? They just chucked it in the bin, mate. I’m not even joking.”🧠🧐
Or that brain surgery consisted of drilling holes in the brain, and that was how they found out certain parts controlled important things like memory, or personality (when they took that part out, oops).
Yup, in ancient history, the brain really got the er…bum rap 🤪
Singapore 🇸🇬 gets mentioned for the longest brain surgery ever in 2001, on a pair of twins joined at the head. “I hope those doctors had a nice breakfast first.” 🤭
The best thing about reading this, is that as the young reader chuckles at the jokes, he or she is likely to pick up quite a thing or two about medicine and the human body. Most excellent 😂
Kay is a former doctor who wrote the bestselling memoir, This is Going to Hurt. This new kids’ nonfiction title follows from last year’s bestselling Kay’s Anatomy (pictured in my first photo) and continues to be a lot of learning fun.
Perfect for gifting season, and I had SO MUCH FUN reading it all! 😙📚
📚: times.reads