From the bizarre and mysterious medical practices of the past, such as prehistoric skull-drilling (trepanning) and the use of cocaine as a local anesthetic, Clifford Pickover explores 250 of the most important milestones in the history of medicine, from 10,000 BC to the present day. The book covers a wide range of topics such as the Hippocratic Oath, biological weapons, human cloning, face transplants, the placebo effect, alternative medicine, the role of war and violence in accelerating progress in medicine, and much more.