Stiff

[maoeris]

Hello all,
I am currently reading Stiff by Mary Roach. It is a good book about cadavers and dead bodies. That may sound weird but there is a lot of facts about the first cadavers, and it is an interesting read. Just thought I would pass it along for anyone looking for summer reading.

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[Asclepius]

yeah, it is good, as macabre as it sounds. It is well written.

 

[bigdan]

Mao-
I haven't read Stiff yet; Body of Knowledge is also interesting, as students at UMDNJ share their med school experiences as they pass through gross anatomy.

dc

 

[Arsenic]

Stiff truly is a great book. Its a lot more interesting than you might think a book on the "Secret lives of cadavers" might be. It goes into some historical experiments involving cadavers such as incidents of trying to resuscitate heads that had been cut off by the guillotine. I learned some crazy facts too, like that the 99% of the bodies recovered from the TWA flight 800 crash in '96 suffered multiple rib fractures, and nearly 70% had their aorta severed from the heart, just from the impact with the water. Really gives you something to look forward to when you're on a plane.... Seriously though, if you want to read a really good, interesting book, this book by Mary Roach is awesome.

 

[DOctorJay]

I just bought Stiff but need to get through The DaVinci Code and The DOs first. Glad to hear others found it interesting.

-J

 

[Alexander99]

Stiff truly is a great book. Its a lot more interesting than you might think a book on the "Secret lives of cadavers" might be. It goes into some historical experiments involving cadavers such as incidents of trying to resuscitate heads that had been cut off by the guillotine. I learned some crazy facts too, like that the 99% of the bodies recovered from the TWA flight 800 crash in '96 suffered multiple rib fractures, and nearly 70% had their aorta severed from the heart, just from the impact with the water. Really gives you something to look forward to when you're on a plane.... Seriously though, if you want to read a really good, interesting book, this book by Mary Roach is awesome.

I might not buy that book for a while. Tell me what happened when they tried resuscitating severed heads. I need to know!!

I've heard that for a little while, if the guillotine is sharp enough, you can still see and hear even though your head is detached. Makes sense if you consider your brain only dies once it runs out of oxygen.

 

[Arsenic]

I might not buy that book for a while. Tell me what happened when they tried resuscitating severed heads. I need to know!!

I've heard that for a little while, if the guillotine is sharp enough, you can still see and hear even though your head is detached. Makes sense if you consider your brain only dies once it runs out of oxygen.

First this guy (I forgot his name) tried examining the freshly guillotined heads of prisoners but.... there was a law in France saying that the body had to be driven by a cemetary right after an execution. Even though this guy lived right next to the site of the execution, he had to wait at least 20 minutes for the head because the body and severed head had to be carted by the cemetary first and then carted back to his lab. Not surprisingly... by the time the head got to him it was completely dead. So he decided to save time and just meet the body/head by the cemetary... I think that saved him like 10 minutes but that was still too long. So... he bribed the local cops and got them to deliver a head to him within a couple of minutes of execution, skipping the whole cemetary thing. I might be getting the different stories confused but I think this is when the guy has the head in his lab and calls out the name of the guy who was beheaded... he claimed that the eyes slowly opened and stared at him... not a blank, gazing stare, but a definite "I'm looking and paying attention to you" type of stare.... then the eyes started to close and he called the mans name out a second time... again the eyes slowly opened and he observed the same focused stare.... crazy stuff!

I dont do the book justice though, the experiments were really interesting and Mary Roach describes it all in pretty good detail... later in the book she writes about how a few decades ago some guy tried to set up "whole body transplants"... aka, taking someone elses body and putting a different persons head on it... he practiced on some animals and had managed to keep the head supplied with blood long enough to keep it alive for a few minutes but the problem was that even if the transplant worked the body would be paralyzed from the severing of the spinal cord... thats one of the major reasons why this research project died but again... crazy stuff!

Mary Roach did A LOT of research for this book and it shows. If that guillotine story interested you Alex, you'll definitely like the book.

 

[ddmo]

I found the book to be pretty decent in the beginning, but about 3/4 of the way through it starts moving slow and gets repetitive. But maybe that's just because she put the most interesting cases in the begining. Regardless, it was in interesting quick read.

 

[SarahGM]

I would strongly advise against reading the TWA Flight 800 chapter before bedtime!! (Like I did.)

(Shuddering)

 

[snapdad]

I started reading this book during a plane trip from Denver to Wisconsin last year (didn't make it to the TWA chapter, thankfully). The people sitting next to me on the plane saw the book cover, gave me weird looks, and didn't talk to me the whole trip.

 

[brats800]

a girl i knew said it was a really good read...sounds like a good book. its definitely on my 'to read' list

 

[kinetic]

I started reading this book during a plane trip from Denver to Wisconsin last year (didn't make it to the TWA chapter, thankfully). The people sitting next to me on the plane saw the book cover, gave me weird looks, and didn't talk to me the whole trip.

Just add a "y" to the end of the title. Then touch yourself repeatedly during the flight and chuckle to yourself.

 

[lisa13579]

Just went and bought it with my 25% off coupon from Borders

 

[lukeday99]

THIS BOOK ROCKS HARDER THAN AN IRON MAIDEN/STYX/KISS TRIPLE HEADER!!!!!!!!!

Seriously, you won't go wrong with this. Who knew dead people were so funny?

 

[snapdad]

THIS BOOK ROCKS HARDER THAN AN IRON MAIDEN/STYX/KISS TRIPLE HEADER!!!!!!!!!

You realize that this is, of course, impossible.

 

[ForensicPath]

I started reading this book during a plane trip from Denver to Wisconsin last year (didn't make it to the TWA chapter, thankfully). The people sitting next to me on the plane saw the book cover, gave me weird looks, and didn't talk to me the whole trip.

I had a similar experience with a different book. I was reading Corpse: Nature, Forensics, and the Struggle to Pinpoint Time of Death (I read this book right after I read Stiff and I recommend it to anyone interested in forensics) and the people sitting next to me on my flight from Florida to New York were giving me all sorts of weird looks. When we landed they finally had enough courage to talk to me and when the woman found out that I worked for a medical examiner she said "Whew... when I saw you reading that book during the flight, I thought you were one of those weirdos. I have to admit, it made me nervous." Then I got the typical "what's it like working with dead people" questions all the way back to the terminal.

As an aside, the Medical Examiner I worked for is actually mentioned in Stiff and is sort of the topic of an entire chapter.