In this book, Moacyr Scliar collects and comments on excerpts from texts that have recorded opinions and facts about illness and healing throughout history. With his usual incisiveness and the restrained humor that characterizes his prose, he rescues privileged moments that have marked the course of medicine and the human struggle against disease.
The history of medicine is a history of voices. The mysterious voices of the body: the breath, the gasp, the gurgle, the crackle, the wheeze. The inarticulate voices of the patient: the groan, the scream, the death rattle. The articulated voices of the patient: the complaint, the account of the illness, the restless questions. The articulated voice of the doctor: the history, the diagnosis, the prognosis. Voices that talk about illness, calm voices, rebellious voices. Voices that seek eternity: words written in clay, on parchment, on paper. A clamor, an uninterrupted flow of voices that has been flowing since time immemorial.
