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pp. 286. “In a selective tour of the human body focusing on just five organs–heart, stomach, liver, spleen, uterus–Nuland shows how, as medical science has advanced, it has slowly disentangled itself from preconception and irrationalism. He says these tendencies are still with us in today’s alternative healing scene (homeopathy, reflexology, herbalism, Chinese medicine, etc.), which, he claims, embraces vague notions of immeasurable energies and life forces gone awry. The book’s most interesting sections are Nuland’s taut re-creations of his operating-room experiences–moving dramas that take us deep inside his patients’ lives as well as their bodies–as he walks a tightrope between life and death.”