Now we live in a time when medicine can cure most dangerous diseases. Sometimes not the most gentle methods are used (especially in the case of oncology), but if you compare with the treatment methods that were practiced in the past, then we can say that modern patients are very, very lucky!
We present you the top 10 most deadly and inhumane treatment methods in history.
10. Radioactive water for arthritis and cancer
Now anyone in their diets knows that uncontrolled radiation is very unhealthy and should be avoided at all costs. However, when the world learned about radiation, between them and the word "miracle" they immediately carried out an unspoken equal sign and tried to adapt it, including for medical purposes.
For example, in the period from 1918 to 1928 on the shelves of American pharmacies, you could buy a tool called "Radithor". It contained distilled water, as well as radium-226 and radium-228. This explosive mixture has been proposed as a cure for mental disorders, arthritis, impotence, and stomach cancer.
On the advice of his doctor, radioactive water was actively consumed by the famous golfer and industrialist Eben Byers. Before his death, he managed to drain 1,400 bottles, three times exceeding the lethal dose for humans. He was a healthy man, what can I say.
However, the jokes are bad with radiation; she gradually deprived Byers of all her teeth, part of the jawbone, and softened the skull so that it bent slightly under the fingers. Two years after using Radithor, Byers passed away. However, his death served a good cause - the authorities of the United States, and then Europe, paid close attention to radioactive drugs, and finally banned them in 1935.
9. Lobotomy from mental disorders
This cruel procedure, developed by Dr. Antoniou Egash Monisch, was positioned as a means of salvation in hopeless situations, with various mental illnesses. Lobotomy involves excision or separation of one of the brain lobes.
Unfortunately, those who managed to survive the lobotomy turned into weak-willed and passive living "vegetables" who were not capable of independent decision-making. And therefore, they could not live normally in society.
One of the most notorious victims of the lobotomy was Rosemary Kennedy, sister of 35th President John F. Kennedy. After the operation, she mentally remained at the level of a two-year-old child, and spent the rest of her life in need of constant care.
8. Therapy with impotence and migraine
In severe Victorian times, the treatment of erectile dysfunction was severe.
Some doctors practiced "galvanic baths", or baths with electrodes, which shocked the patient and thereby had to restore his fading sexual desire in just six sessions. The same method of treatment supposedly helped with chronic migraine.
Other Victorian doctors practiced an even more savage method: the rod through which the current passed was placed directly into the patient's urethra. The treatment lasted for 5-8 minutes, and was repeated once or twice a week. Fortunately, there are many good remedies for male potency.
7. Heroin for the common cold
This drug is now associated with crime, poverty and disease. But there was a time when heroin was considered a medicine, and it was prescribed for a number of diseases. In the early 20th century, heroin was used in the United States and Europe to treat colds, coughs and as an anesthetic. There was even a children's version of heroin medicine.
In the Russian Empire, heroin was used in the 1900s to treat depression, on the initiative of Dr. A. N. Bernshtein.
However, the reassessment of the harm and benefits of heroin has led to the fact that it has gradually ceased to be used for medical purposes.
6. Gasoline from lice
One of the most dangerous methods of treatment was used not so long ago - at the beginning of the 20th century. The procedure itself was extremely simple. It was necessary to dip his head in a container with gasoline or kerosene in order to remove uninvited guests from the scalp.
Although gasoline-kerosene treatment for lice was really effective, it could well be deadly if the patient passed an open source of fire. Modern medicine can solve this problem much more safely with the help of therapeutic shampoos.
5. Mercury from syphilis
Since the 16th century, mercury in the form of ointments and fumigations has been widely used to treat syphilis. And what is most terrible - such procedures were often repeated until the patient's death. Thus was born the pungency of lovers spending "one night with Venus and a lifetime with Mercury."
What can I say about the backward 16th century, when back in the beginning of the 20th century, doctors treated syphilis by introducing mercury preparations into the patient's body!
Fortunately, this terrible treatment method is finally a thing of the past after the mass production of penicillin in 1943.
4. Carcasses of dead whales from rheumatism
Pain with rheumatism is one of the most severe types of pain known to mankind. It is not surprising that in an attempt to get rid of her, people are ready to do anything. Even spend 30 hours in a rotting whale carcass. This original method of treatment was invented by the inhabitants of the southern coast of Australia, and practiced in the 19th century.
To die from joint pain or suffocate from a stench is a difficult choice, do you think?
3. Tobacco enema as a rescue of drowning
This brutal treatment was used in the 19th century, mainly for the reanimation of drowned people. The idea of a “saving enema” was that heated tobacco smoke would reach the lungs, remove excess moisture, and help restore breathing. And the nicotine in tobacco will make the heart beat fast and hard.
On the London embankments even hung the equipment necessary for a tobacco enema, which was kindly provided to the citizens by the Royal Humane Society. Master classes were also held with the involvement of living citizens and city dwellers.
2. Severe starvation from aortic aneurysm
At the beginning of the 20th century, doctors tried to treat aortic aneurysm, reducing the strength with which the heart pumped blood. One of the dubious regimens used to achieve this was known as the Tuffnell Diet.
Its description can be found in the medical texts of 1901:
- two ounces of bread and butter and two ounces of milk for breakfast,
- three ounces of meat and four ounces of milk or red wine for lunch,
- two ounces of bread with two ounces of milk for dinner.
An ounce is 28.3 grams. We don’t know if such a treatment method helped a lot, but that after it was savagely hungry is undoubtedly.
1. Parts of corpses as a cure for epilepsy and other diseases
The phrase “you are what you eat” can sound quite ominous if you remember that for hundreds of years, until the 1890s, human corpses served as an ingredient in various medicines. Perhaps the use of these drugs was not the most dangerous method of treating various diseases, but certainly the most vile.
The most common components of cadaveric drugs were blood, fat, bones, and flesh. Many executioners received orders for parts of the body of the criminal sentenced to death. And in 1664, even the book “The Complete Book of Chemistry” was published, which described in detail which corpse is better to use for the preparation of health remedies, and what needs to be done with it.
One of the most popular drugs of the time was made from smuggled Egyptian mummies. Powdered mummified residues were used to treat epileptic seizures, bruising, and hemorrhage.
