Hey Thoughty2 here.
1.
The Ancient Egyptians used to rub dead mouse paste on their teeth to ease toothaches.
And in Elizabethan England a popular remedy for warts was to cut a mouse in half and apply
it to the offending spot.
2.
In the Middle Ages some doctors believed that “like cures like”.
So when the Black Death hit, which was believed to be caused by deadly vapours.
They were convinced that the cure was to fart in a jar.
Doctors urged people to store farts in jars and keep them in their homes, and when the
plague appeared in their neighbourhood they were to take a whiff of the jars contents.
3.
Hitler was a hypochondriac, so his doctors injected his buttocks with all kinds of substances,
one of which, was crystal meth.
Witnesses claimed the meth helped Hitler stay alert and active throughout the day.
Albert Speer, a member of the Third Reich, considered Hitler’s crystal meth addiction
as one reason for his Hitler’s rigid tactics in the later stages of the war.
Such as, not allowing troops to retreat even under the most dire circumstances.
4.
Highly popular in Medieval Europe, uroscopy was the practice of diagnosing a patient by
examining their urine.
Doctors would observe the urine’s smell and consistency and even taste it.
5.
On a similar note, at number 4 is “urine therapy”.
Some people throughout history believed that drinking and even bathing in urine is the
key to good health and can cure various ailments.
However, unlike most of the treatments in this video that have since died out, urine
therapy is still widely used today, despite there being absolutely zero evidence that
it can cure anything.
6.
In the 18th and 19th centuries, to cure a patient’s
stutter doctors would cut off half of the stutter’s tongue.
The practice is known as Hemiglossectomy and it is still used today but as a treatment
for oral cancer.
It’s now done under general anaesthesia but back in the day it would of been an extremely
painful procedure to undergo, and unsurprisingly it didn’t work, a lot of patients simply
bled to death.
7.
Today Arsenic is commonly known as a poison, but for centuries it has been used as a medicine.
It was best known for being the key ingredient in a supposed cure for malaria and syphilis
called Fowler’s Solution.
That was widely used throughout the late 18th century, up until the 1950s.
Victorian women also used arsenic as a cosmetic.
8.
In the 19th century mothers got increasingly tired of disobedient children keeping them
up all night.
So to aide the stressed parents a series of soothing syrups were invented and marketed
to mothers.
The syrup solution sure worked in keeping children quiet, the only problem was it worked
a little too well.
Unbeknown to mothers the syrups usually contained a concoction of chloroform, codeine, cannabis
and heroin as well as many other nasty substances.
In many cases the children died from taking the syrups.
However, it wasn’t until 1910 when the New York Times published what the syrups actually
contain that the usage declined.
9.
In the 1940s if you were mentally ill, depressed or just didn’t fit into normal society for
any reason there was one answer.
Lobotomy.
The inventor of Lobotomy, Egas Moniz, who created the procedure in 1935 was actually
awarded with a nobel prize for his findings in 1949.
Although the reality was considerably less glamorous.
A lobotomy operation consisted of rendering the patient unconscious for a short time via
a series of electric shocks to the brain.
The nurse or doctor then jabbed an ice pick through the upper eye socket of the patient
and pierced it through the skull using a mallet until it hit the brain.
The ice pick was then wiggled from side to side in order to sever the connections to
the person’s prefrontal cortex.
The part of the brain that’s responsible for a person’s personality, expression,
cognitive behaviour, decision making and social behaviour.
Doctors believed if you remove this section of the brain patients will be cured of any
mental illnesses, anxiety and depression.
Parents even started getting their kids lobotomised to fix their bad behaviour, something we know
today as ADHD, one of the youngest ever lobotomy patients “Dully” was 12 years old.
However lobotomies lost popularity around 1967 when people realised that shoving an
ice pick through someone’s brain probably isn’t a good idea, after one patient died
of a brain haemorrhage during the operation.
But they are still performed today in extreme cases.
10.
But humans have been making holes in each others skulls for thousands of years, perhaps
one of the oddest practices and the oldest surgical procedure for which we have ever
found evidence of is Trepanning.
Also known as Trepanation, it is the strange practice of drilling a hole in ones skull
to supposedly treat migraines, seizures and mental illness.
There is no medical evidence to back it up, and not surprisingly it often made the symptoms
worse.
Neolithic skulls have been found with trepanation holes in them dating back as early as 6,500
BC.
A medical professional would never perform this procedure today, however some avid supporters
of the practice still trepan their own skulls using things such as power tools.
Thanks for the view, subscribe for more Thoughty2.