The Healing Hand : Man and Wound in the Ancient World

Tracing the art of the physician in the ancient world, this book captures the healers' attempts to conquer pain over the centuries.

Looking at the civilizations of the ancient world - Greece at the time of Hippocrates, Rome under the Caesars, the Egypt of the Pharohs, the India of Ashoka and China as Mencius knew it - Dr Guido Majno has returned to the orginal sources to unravel history from documents as varied as personal letters, buried artifacts and early treatises.

He has reconstructed ancient experiments in a modern laboratory and has evaluated ancient remedies with today's methods.