The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons, also known by its full title The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons: The History of The Human Brain as Revealed by True Stories of Trauma, Madness, and Recovery is a science book regarding the brain and its functions by Sam Kean. The Daily Telegraph described it as "A dramatic account of the gruesome accidents that shaped modern neuroscience." Publication The book was published in hardback on May 6, 2014 by Little, Brown and Company. Contents/Synopsis In The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons, Sam Kean travels through time with stories of startling peculiarity and incredible fascination, stories of neurological curiosities: phantom limbs, cannibalism, Siamese brains and a plethora of other strange, though equally fascinating things. Kean effortlessly ties historical accounts, stories of madness and insanity, with the scientific breakthroughs that often followed. His writing shows that every breakthrough was borne of malady, injury, necessity. Part I: Gross Anatomy Introduction Each chapter begins with a rebus, a word puzzle, pertaining to the subject of the chapter. In this introductory section, Kean essentially provides some background information and summarizes how the book will continue. Chapter 1: The Dueling Neurosurgeons The first chapter begins with Kean setting the stage of a historic jousting match between King Henri II of France and Gabriel Montgomery. After jousting with Montgomery once, Henri demanded that he go a second time (which broke the laws of chivalry and good sport). It is during this second joust that Henri was whacked square in the face by his opponent's jousting pole. His face was evidentally cut off This is when Kean introduces the "dueling neurosurgeons": Ambroise Paré and Andreas Vesalius, both esteemed neurosurgeons at the time. Paré was the royal surgeon at the time and was a pioneer in terms of medicine, as he refused to heed medical norms at the time due to the fact that they were often painful and useless for the patient. Vesalius was also a royal surgeon, though in a different court, and wrote the book "On The Fabric of the Human Body" (an amazing medical work, effortlessly combining beautiful artwork and medicine). They both teamed together when the king fell to try to see if they could revive him. Upon examination, the king had no fractures to his head and so it would have been assumed that nothing was wrong. The surgeons knew better, and were going to encounter