We all love a little nostalgia, but when we stop and think about it, isn't it good that science and technology have progressed? For example, when we think about the past history, the point where medicine is at is a point where I would not want to be in the past. I'm glad there is modern medicine. (:

Today, let's take a look at the strangest medical treatments of the past.

A JAR OF FARTS

Yes, you read that right. The Great Plague in London in the 1660s was a frightening time. People were prepared to do almost anything to stay healthy, including sniffing a jar of their own farts.

At the time, doctors were convinced that the plague was spread by deadly air vapour and that a foul-smelling substance could dilute the pollution. Therefore, some natives began to store their farts in jars, just in case the need for a quick sniff suddenly arose.

MILK TRANSFUSIONS

Before blood types were discovered, about half of patients who received blood from a donor died. In the late 1800s it became popular for doctors to use milk instead.

This precious liquid from cows, goats or humans was thought to provide the body with the raw material needed to create white blood cells in a safer way than replenishing it with donor blood. In reality, however, milk transfusions still often resulted in death. It did not take long for this idea to be discredited.

THE POWER OF MUMMIES

If you walked into a pharmacy in Europe during the Middle Ages, you probably walked out with a bottle of powder containing ground Egyptian mummies.

From the 12th century onwards, mummy medicines were common in Europe and were used to treat bruises, headaches, wounds, cancer, gout or depression. However, in the 16th century, doctors began to question this medicine. Most likely the whole fad was a silly misunderstanding based on a mistranslation of ancient texts.

These texts claimed that bitumen, which was often used in the embalming process, could heal wounds and broken limbs or provide an antidote to poisons. It was not the mummy itself that was originally thought to be curative.

THE WHALE HOTEL

One of the more recent and ridiculous medical crazes began in the late nineteenth century in an Australian hotel. Here patients with rheumatoid arthritis were taken to a dead whale and asked to lie in its carcass for several hours.

This bizarre treatment was apparently 'discovered' by a drunken person who stumbled across a dead whale on the beach and for some reason 'dived into the rotting blubber'.

Not only was he completely sober, he claimed that his rheumatism was cured. It is not clear how long others followed in his footsteps.

CURE FOR EVERY PROBLEM CABBAGE

In ancient Rome, one vegetable was considered healthier than almost all other vegetables. According to the famous Roman scholar Pliny the Elder, "To enumerate all the praises of cabbage would be a very long task."

Of all the uses Piny suggested, one of the strangest was injecting warm cabbage juice into the ears to cure hearing loss.

The Roman historian Marcus Cato the Elder even wrote a 2,000-word treatise on the miracles of cabbage.

"It wonderfully promotes digestion and is an excellent purgative, and the urine [of cabbage eaters] is healthy for everything," Cato praised. Pliny even once said that if little boys bathed in this urine, they "never grew weak".

Which one surprised you the most? I was the first one.

 

Source: https://www.sciencealert.com/