Filled with gripping medical histories that explore the body's mysterious capacity to marshal disparate organs and processes in the interests of survival to highlight the miraculous resiliency of human life.

Includes index. Originally published as: The wisdom of the body.

The will to live -- The constant sea within maintains the constancy within -- Of numphs, lymph, and courage in the face of cancer -- Sympathy and the nervous system -- The fundamental unit of life : the cell -- Biology, destiny, and free will -- The act of love -- A child is born -- The heart of the matter -- The blood is the life -- A voyage through the gut -- Mining the mind : the brain and human nature.