Lewis and Clark and Wilderness Medicine

San Diego author and physician David Peck will present a slide show and lecture on his book, “Or Perish in the Attempt: Wilderness Medicine in the Lewis and Clark Expedition,” 7 p.m. Oct. 6 in Hieronymus Lounge in Kerrwood Hall on Westmont’s upper campus.

Peck has turned his love of the outdoors, history and medicine into a book that details the expedition with wit, explaining that embarking into the wilderness of the 1700s with few medical supplies or medicines was tantamount to suicide.

“The physician of the early 19th century was like a hunter with a rubber knife going in search of a grizzly bear,” Peck says.

The book also traces the changing political and scientific arenas at the time of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark’s trek. “Or Perish in the Attempt” was featured by the University of Virginia at the kickoff event for the Bicentennial of the Lewis and Clark Expedition in Monticello in January.

Peck, an urgent-care physician, received his bachelor and master’s degrees in secondary education and biological sciences from Arizona State University and received his degree in osteopathic medicine from Western University of Health Sciences in Pomona.

For more information, call the office of public affairs at (805) 565-6051, or e-mail pubaffairs@westmont.edu.