How To Remove a Brain is an amazingly captivating book about some very strange historical medical facts. From the start of the book, the seemingly random vignettes are increasingly absorbing and encourage the reader to delve deeper into the quirky and gruesome past of the medical profession.
Having a slight stammer most of my life, I was particularly horrified to learn of a 19th century brutal medical procedure to cure stammering by cutting off half the patients tongue. Not surprisingly, the cure was ineffective, especially as many bled to death.
It was sad to learn that Edward Jenner, the pioneer of vaccines, was never fully accepted by his blinkered Physician contemporaries.
I will definitely read some more David Haviland books. From previous reviews, they all promise to be as good a read as this one.

Rating: 4.0/5.0

Don't be fooled by its title because this book is lots of fun to read. It has lots of bizarre medical procedures or practices. It is weird but very enjoyable at the same time. In ten chapters, many subjects have been covered. Examples are many like How ancient Egypt believed dead mouse paste could cure toothache, How to remove a brain! and how plastic surgery happened.

Everything here is about bizarre medical practices. Some people might get disgusted (There is a whole chapter about disgusted diseases!) and others might find that interesting. One drawback about this book is that it has no references to back up all these claims. Some of the practices could be true while others just assumptions or conclusions reached by the author. For example, in one of the chapters, there is talk about the benefits of drinking urine. I have read about that some time ago that there were some tribes that encouraged this habit for the benefits they thought this practice give. However, the author also mentions in the same chapter "The Koran bizarrely recommends the drinking of camels urine" and I say this is a completely wrong statement and has no truth to it. I don't know how and from where the author reached this false conclusion? Just because some old tribes in Saudia Arabia do this practice does not mean that it is written or recommended by Koran! This and many other stuff makes me question a lot of the things written in the book.

I would say read this book for enjoyment only, I don't think the author meant for it to be taken seriously as there are no references and many points are based on his own interpretation rather than real facts. I understand that some of the subjects he mentioned were just based on pure myths like whether Hitler was a meth addict or not, but that point about Koran is just pure false statement and not even a myth. It would have been a lot better if he backed up the points he made with references.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Thistle Publishing for providing me a free copy of this book in return of an honest and unbiased review.

Thanks to David Haviland and Thistle for sending me a digital copy.

A very entertaining but also insightful and interesting book. What is bizarre? Yes, using dung as a contraceptive seems rather bizarre - and it didn't even help, of course - but the people who practiced this really thought about it and thought they were doing something good. I'm always on the hunt for interesting facts and I found some nice new ones in this book, particularly regarding useful medical inventions.
I had to laugh out loud sometimes, for instance when reading about Queen Victoria and her personal physician - who never ever saw her in her bed or without her clothes. Only after she died he found out she suffered from some nasty ailments, as a hernia.
Not the kind of book you read in one sitting; it is the kind of book you read a chapter at the time. It is very well written with honesty ánd humor.

How to remove a brain by David Haviland has tons of little tidbits of various medical treatments and operations that go back thousands of years. I knew of many of the common facts.. such as using urine for jellyfish stings, how the Egyptians removed the brains during mummification, etc.. But, there were also many MANY factoids that I had never heard about prior to reading this book! The perfect book for anyone who loves watching Jeopardy or just delights in knowing obscure off the wall tidbits! Good stuff!

What good fun this book is! Filled with medical trivia, it entertains and educates at the same time. The author has done his research, and approaches his subject with a light-hearted approach that makes the book a joy to read, whilst imparting much knowledge along the way. Well written, gently debunking some medical myths, yet always keeping to the facts, this is the sort of book that makes an ideal present for – well, just about everyone!

Author David Haviland has put together a great collection of bizarre,weird,sometimes totally gross and unbelievable medical facts.

I really enjoyed this book it was great for dipping in and out of or just randomly opening at a page. It would make a great present,for a person who like me loves recording and collecting bizarre and random facts.

Also a great little book full facts that you can start random conversations with at dinner parties.

How to Remove a Brain is the new book from the highly talented David Haviland and he has a growing reputation of producing these fact-filled, trivia, fun reads, on multiple subjects. This medical subject really resonated with me as I often speak about the dubious practices that existed in healthcare and medicines, which led to the establishment of the FDA and other regulatory bodies. I find this whole area totally engrossing and debatable, and the book delivers amazing titbits of medical and physiological information along with its history and practices, to fuel many discussions and revelations. A fascinating book full of medical vignettes that will enlighten, astound, amuse and disgust the reader.

The book starts with the medical wisdom of the ancients and the Egyptians in particular. How do you remove a brain? You could say, saw through the top of the head and lift out, or use a long wire with a hook and feed it through the nasal cavity to scrape it away in chunks – as the ancient Egyptians did in preparation for mummification. The region around Egypt and Greece developed many of the concepts and terminology we still use today. Plastic as in plastic surgery doesn’t come from the use of the material context but rather the Greek word ‘plastikos’ which means to mould. We all know the importance of the Hippocratic Oath but it runs to several principles and is still sworn (or a modified version of it anyway) by most doctors today.

In 1535, Belgian Andreas Vesalius stole the dead body of a hanging criminal and secretly investigated the human skeletal and organ composition, thus disproving many of the beliefs held since Aristotle and Galen. With so many errors from Galen it is now presumed that he could not have dissected a human body to have gained his knowledge, but instead used other animals and assumed a similarity. Vesalius is recognised as the father of modern-day anatomy.

How often in all innovations do we hear how the real inventor, or the seminal piece of work, was conducted by someone other than who is given credit for it? There are some interesting revelations here and often the pursuit of knowledge is accompanied with macabre and clandestine activities.

All David’s work is very well researched and common misconceptions challenged with a more logical proposition, such as the eradication of the Plague by the Great Fire of London. David makes the reading of this book entertaining and engaging as he often builds the background to the proposed question. For example, was Jack the Ripper a Surgeon? Do we only use 10% of our brain? Can some people go mad at a full moon? Does snake oil work?

Many thanks to David Haviland for providing me with a copy of his book in return for an honest review.

“Physicians of all men are most happy;
What good success soever they have the world proclaimeth,
And what faults they commit, the earth covered” (Francis Quarles)

On this jolly note, Author David Haviland begins his presentation of the odd and awful, the famous and infamous, and the puzzling and perplexing stories of humans, their bodies and diseases. When I considered whether to read and review this book, I said yes, mainly because I have a secret crush on the author. (He’s English…his name…he works in publishing…)

And now I have to say that I am delighted I read this book. I enjoyed it and I have become quite the conversationalist since I added these interesting stories to my repertoire.

The chapter titles themselves are fascinating: Disgusting Diseases, Curious Cures, Rude Bits and my two favorites, The Good Doctor and Snake Oil. In The Good Doctor, we learn about many major breakthroughs in medicine, eradicating smallpox and cholera. And that’s all wonderful, but I loved the story titled, “What was unusual about Dr. James Barry?” This answer to this is incredible!

The reason I enjoyed the Snake Oil chapter is because it demonstrates the power of marketing. We think we invented marketing and social. Ha! Marketing was amazingly successful hundreds of years ago- people made fortunes. May I recommend the story about the tapeworm trap and also James Graham’s Celestial Bed- now those bits showed the power of marketing! (Would you be surprised to learn that Mr. Graham was a self-styled “sex guru”?)

The author writes in a clear and light-hearted style. Each story begins with a question that will hook you in, and Mr. Haviland’s answer is concise, yet flavored with fun and interest. The book seems to be accurate and well-researched. I liked that the author was curious and not critical. Time have changed but curiosities and wonder, trivia and fun facts remain and make this an engaging read. This book is Shortlisted for The People's Book Prize 2019.


Thanks to Net Galley and Thistle Publishing for a review copy. This is my honest review.

Thanks to Thistle publishing for my copy.

This is a unique and fascinating insight into some obscure and truly weird medical facts and procedures. The author has thoroughly researched his subject and his writing style is both informative and at times amusing. As a retired nurse I loved this collection of medical trivia and loved the author's tongue in cheek style of explanation.

This quirky collection of interesting medical facts and historical bits educates while it entertains. All the entries are quick to read yet thought-provoking, and share an unexpected element of wackiness. Plenty of helpful takeaways, from pathological trivia to fascinating word etymology - who wouldn't want to know that Anaesthesia was for a time a fashionable name for newborn girls, or the origin of the term "blowing smoke up ones ass"? Personally I found this book really funny, but even if you don't share my sense of humor, there are so many other aspects I'm sure you'd appreciate!

A fun collection, I really enjoyed it.

I love medical memoirs. This is a bit different in that it's a collection of facts and figures; weird and wonderful; horrid and sometimes hilarious, about medical complaints and practices from years gone by. Unusual uses for substances and articles. A good book to read in between other bigger books. I just had a glance at this as I was reading something else- but I was hooked from the first page and had to continue.

It was a fun, quick read. If you like quirky facts and figures-this is for you. As I was reading it, so many times I was saying to myself: "Oh my goodness!", "Gosh!" and cringing. Some of the facts I had heard of before, and some were new ones on me too. Some are hilarious! Not just silly facts either-some incredibly interesting facts and info in here. An enjoyable history of medicine. Some things are still done today-and thank heavens some practices are not!!! A great book to satisfy your thirst for knowledge.

I love watching QI, over and over again, so I know the answers to some of the questions! If you love having loads of interesting facts at your disposal, being a mine of useful-and useless-information, this book is fab!

Thank you NetGalley, Thistle Publishing and David Haviland for the eARC.
My goodness, this was such a fun (and at times quite creepy!) read; I was laughing and going 'eeew' quite a bit and just couldn't put the book down. My husband practically tore my Kindle away from me and is reading it now.
I think the one fact I was grossed out the most by is the mouse paste, just unbelievable! There were many more jaw dropping parts and all I can say is: read this book! You'll enjoy it and thank your lucky stars medical practices have come a long way...

Love these sort of books! Lots of medical trivia that is really pretty thought provoking and yet entertaining. Makes me wonder how the medicine of today will be looked back on in the future.... I've read some of the tales in this book before (live long enough!) but enjoyed a good laugh again and actually find more reason to think about what I'm reading this time around. It's a great book to browse as one can pretty much skip around and read whatever looks interesting. Great book for lovers of trivia, medical, and science , and history- so it covers lots of bases. Might even make a great gift! I'd love to get it as a gift! But I'll end up buying it myself.

I enjoyed reading this book. It is a non fiction book about how the brain works in a person and how to stay healthy. It is my first book read by this author. I hope to read more books by this author.

While I think these types of books can be fairly interesting, I think they can minimize more serious/important topics. The author is a strong writer and definitely adds charm and wit but these short snippets of medical history - as amazing as they are - feel very trite.

I don’t, because I’m not a brain surgeon. And David Haviland didn’t exactly teach me how to remove a brain in his book HOW TO REMOVE A BRAIN AND OTHER BIZARRE MEDICAL PRACTICES.

(I say not exactly because he discussed how the Ancient Egyptians would yank out pharaohs brains through the nose before mummification, but I already knew that.)

23217984I forgive Mr. Haviland, though, because the “other bizarre medical practices” included in his collection of super bizarre medical stories. I yammered on and on and on, to the point of possibly annoying friends and family, while I was reading this book. And I have no regrets.

No regrets because I did not know things like the fact that people used to grind up mice into a paste as a cure for a toothache. That the French nearly drove leeches to extinction with their intense devotion to bleeding and bloodletting, and actually imported leeches from other places in Europe. (I’m writing this review unfortunately late so I don’t remember a lot of specifics… or maybe I’m just really trying to get you, Unknown Blog Reader, to read this book. It works either way.)

I loved this book. I love this book. I’m going to read it again one day. Why? Because I forgot some things, because it is history (and I LOVE all things history), and because it makes for a great conversation starter. Even if people might look at you a little bit sideways!

Humorous and scary look at medical weirdness

I enjoyed this book. Author David Haviland put together a collection of medical weirdness that at times had me cringing or shaking my head. Haviland writes with a sense of humor and doesn’t use a lot of science, keeping things conversational. Actually, in type of content, tone and manner, I found the book much the same as Lydia Kang’s and Nate Pedersen’s Quackery, but there was little actual overlap in subjects. Both these books take a superficial look at the various topics and both are equally well-written and enjoyable to read, so I can’t recommend one over the other. For a more detailed look at the subject of medical weirdness, I recommend Paul Offit’s Pandora’s Lab.

A collection of very short chapters on various medical arcana. Has a tendency to veer toward the silly rather than the informative. Disappointing.

This book does exactly what "it says on the tin", or in this case on the cover. Not one necessarily for the squeamish, but once you pick it up it is hard to put it down until you have read at least one more fact. I can see the information contained within the book being quoted time and time again in many social gatherings.

How to Remove a Brain And Other Bizarre Medical Practices and Procedures by David Haviland is a fun and crazy book with things in there I would have never thought of. I requested this book from NetGalley and the review is voluntary. Let me first say, I have two degrees, I am a nurse (that helps when reading some of this gross stuff), so I am not an illiterate person. I like trivia and I can't help it if this trivia is a little on the... strange side. I don't want to call it odd, lets call it obscure. Let's just say if you are looking for something different, you got it! I loved it, different, strange, you won't find this anywhere else! LOL