BMJ  2005;330:368 (12 February), doi:10.1136/bmj.330.7487.368

reviews

Book

Saturday

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Hey, Saturday—get up late and it's okay, but not for Henry Perowne, consultant neurosurgeon. Although he is usually "thoughtlessly content" at the weekend, today just happens to coincide with the anti-war demonstration on 15 February 2003. His day starts and ends with a bang.

Perowne is a rationalist, with a boyish enthusiasm for modern science and at odds with the cynicism of these "baffled and fearful" days. Reflecting on trans-sphenoidal hypophysectomy, he considers the procedure "humane and daring—the spirit of benevolence enlivened by the boldness of a high-wire circus act." A true descendant of US neurosurgeon Harvey Cushing and something of an Everyman, he is Joyce's Leopold Bloom as FRCS. His stream of consciousness can eddy within seconds from contemplating the fate of his urinary waste to the ongoing debate on Iraq. Like Bloom he is . . . [Full text of this article]

Royal Sussex County Hospital, Brighton John.Quin@bsuh.nhs.uk

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

Related Articles

Intuition

Trisha Greenhalgh
BMJ 2006 333: 50. [Extract] [Full Text]

The case for slowing down

Kamran Abbasi
BMJ 2005 330: 0. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

This article has been cited by other articles:

• O'Neill, D. (2007). Driving and dementia. CMAJ 176: 351-351 [Full text]  
• Greenhalgh, T. (2006). Intuition. BMJ 333: 50-50 [Full text]