This anthology features the insights and writings of literary luminaries and famous scientists and doctors, encompassing every emotion evoked by sickness and health. It contains not the conventional wisdom of a medical textbook, but rather the ideas of such diverse contributors as Somerset Maugham, Jeffrey Bernard, Chekhov, P.G. Wodehouse, John Updike, Mel Smith, Gryff Rhys Jones, Spike Milligan, Louis Pasteur and Florence Nightingale. They provide a perspective on life's myriad of medical mysteries, from the common cold, through the perils and pleasures of smoking and drinking, to brain surgery. This collection should appeal to doctors or anyone who has been a patient (or who is determined not to be one).