Description: Speaking both to the general public and to small groups of medical professionals, Steiner offers new insights into our understanding of human organs, as well as the efficacy of healing substances such as arsenic, sulfur, arnica, and essential plant oils. He studies a broad range of specific medical conditions, offering advice on cancer, hysteria, rheumatism, gout, skin eruptions, typhoid, diabetes, hemophilia, syphilis, gonorrhea, asthma, glaucoma, leukemia, smallpox, insomnia, and childhood diseases such as measles. His commentaries on subjects such as psychiatry, sexual maturity, memory, poisoning, and detoxification present challenging perspectives for both patients and medical practitioners. Steiners surprisingly non-dogmatic advice on vaccination, for example, gives a refreshingly balanced and, perhaps unexpected, point of view.
Brief description: Matthew Barton is a translator, editor, teacher, and poet, and taught kindergarten for many years at the Bristol Waldorf School. His first collection of poems was Learning To Row (1999). He has won numerous prizes for his work, including an Arts Council Writer's Award and a Hawthornden Fellowship.