In 1900—decades before the advent of antibiotics and blood banks—surgery was still an evolving, experimental field defined by high mortality rates and less-than-scientific forays into the unknown. Hence the tagline for Steven Soderbergh’s forthcoming hospital drama, “The Knick”: “Surgery wasn’t always science.”

[caption id="attachment_366359" align="alignright" width="235" caption="Photo by Stephane Peniguel"]