12 Early Medical Practices That Seem Strange Today

This article explores 12 fascinating and unsettling early medical practices that were once considered standard care but appear bizarre and often horrific through the lens of modern science. Procedures such as using highly toxic mercury to treat syphilis, intentionally ingesting tapeworms for weight loss, or drilling holes in the skull to release evil spirits highlight an era where medical understanding was dominated by the humoral theory, superstition, and a desperate lack of effective, evidence-based treatments. The transition from these crude, often fatal methods to today’s rigorous, sterile, and research-driven healthcare system illustrates the monumental progress in medical knowledge and the ethical standards applied to patient care across centuries of human history.

1. Trepanation: Drilling Holes in the Skull

In order to reveal the dura mater, a hole was purposefully drilled or scraped into the human skull. Archaeological evidence indicates that this surgery, which is among the oldest surgical techniques, was carried out for thousands of years in a number of ancient societies worldwide. It was frequently used for purported medicinal or religious purposes, such as curing mental illness, reducing headaches, or freeing evil spirits thought to be imprisoned inside the patient’s brain, in addition to being an emergency therapy for head injuries. It was thought that by opening the skull, negative emotions or stresses might be released, giving the affected person their health and equilibrium back.

2. Bloodletting: Draining the Body of Life

From ancient Greece until the late 19th century, bloodletting was arguably the most popular medical procedure for almost 2,000 years. The fundamental idea stemmed from the Greek doctrine of humorism, which postulated that the body was controlled by four vital fluids or “humors,” including blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile. Regardless of the patient’s real condition, the removal of blood, the most volatile and readily accessible humor, was the main treatment to restore the body’s natural equilibrium because illness was believed to be caused by an imbalance or excess of one of these humors. This common method entailed utilizing tools like lances, knives, or even leeches to take blood from the patient, usually from a big vein.

3. Using Mercury as a Cure-All

Despite its recognized toxicity, mercury, a heavy, silvery-white metal that is liquid at room temperature, was previously widely accepted as a medicinal treatment for a wide range of ailments. Mercury compounds were used for a variety of purposes by ancient societies, such as the Greeks and the Chinese, but their use peaked in the early modern era, especially for the treatment of syphilis, a sexually transmitted disease that devastated communities. In order to “purge” the body of the illness, doctors frequently recommended that mercury be consumed, applied topically, or inhaled as vapor. Patients using mercury treatments frequently experienced terrible, cumulative adverse effects that were sometimes misdiagnosed as illness symptoms.

4. Smoking for Toothaches and General Health

Unbelievably, some doctors used to aggressively advocate smoking as a remedy for a variety of illnesses, such as the common cold, chronic coughs, and—most oddly—toothaches. When tobacco was brought from the Americas to Europe, it was praised as a wonderful herb. It was believed that the smoke had strong antibacterial and analgesic effects, especially when blown directly onto the afflicted area. Doctors contended that the “worms” or bacteria thought to be causing oral pain may be killed by the smoke’s heat and active chemicals. Sometimes, patients were told to use tiny pipes that precisely focused the smoke on the painful area or to hold the smoke in their mouths close to the tooth.

5. Applying Mummified Remains as Medicine

Ground-up mummified human remains were used as a therapeutic ingredient in a gruesome and now distressing technique during the medieval and early modern eras. Due to a misconception of bitumen-based ancient Egyptian medicine, this material, called mumia, was thought to have powerful therapeutic qualities. Mumia was a highly prized, if gory, item among apothecaries since it was used to treat everything from headaches and coughs to fractures and plague. It was frequently consumed in a mixture with honey, wine, or other liquids. Because there was such a great demand for real Egyptian mummies, there was a widespread trade in them, which finally resulted in the production of false mumia from the corpses of recently deceased people, criminals, or even animals.

6. The Use of “Electrotherapy” for Almost Everything

Electrotherapy is the enthusiastic, and frequently bizarre, use of electrical currents in treatment that resulted from the discovery and expanding knowledge of electricity in the 18th and 19th centuries. Doctors and quacks alike shocked people for a startling range of illnesses using crude electrical devices like Leyden jars. Later, induction coils for particular medical applications were thoroughly investigated. Treatments included anything from minor headaches and intestinal issues to mental disease, paralysis, impotence, and deafness, frequently with elaborate, highly dramatic public demonstrations.

7. Licking Wounds by Dogs for Healing

Many ancient cultures, including the Greeks and Egyptians, believed that dog saliva had unique therapeutic properties. Physicians who saw that dogs naturally licked their own wounds and that human wounds occasionally seemed to heal after being licked, aggressively promoted this practice rather than just tolerating it. The reasoning was straightforward: the dog’s lick was thought to be a natural, purifying agent that cleaned the wound and encouraged quick healing, frequently without the need for difficult, unpleasant human intervention. Sacred dogs were maintained expressly to lick the wounds and sores of travelers seeking a miracle recovery in ancient Greece, especially in the shrines devoted to the curing deity Asclepius. This practice was seen as divine intervention.

8. Treating Hysteria with Pelvic Massage

During the Victorian era, “hysteria,” a purported mental disorder originating in the uterus (derived from the Greek word hystera), was a prevalent diagnosis for women displaying a wide range of symptoms, including anxiety, irritability, faintness, and sexual desire. The doctor’s “pelvic massage” was one of the main medical therapies recommended for this all-encompassing condition. Its goal was to induce a “hysterical paroxysm,” or what is now known as an orgasm, in order to relieve the congestion and symptoms. For the doctors, this process was extremely time-consuming and tiresome, frequently requiring lengthy sessions. The first electromechanical vibrators were eventually created in the late 19th century due to the large number of women who were diagnosed with hysteria.

9. Cauterization as a Routine Surgical Tool

In ancient times and the Middle Ages, cauterization—the medical procedure of burning a portion of the body to seal a wound, halt bleeding, or remove a growth—was a basic and widely employed method. Long before contemporary surgical ligatures and anesthetics were developed, doctors like Hippocrates and Galen advised its usage, especially for amputations and tumor excision. In order to stop acute blood loss and infection, a searing wound was created by placing a superheated iron or other metal tool directly to the tissue. Although the procedure was extremely painful and had serious hazards, including severe tissue damage and permanent scarring, it was frequently thought to be the best way to stop a patient from bleeding to death.

10. Ingesting Living Tapeworms for Weight Loss

The tapeworm diet was a startlingly careless trend that promised simple weight loss in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In this procedure, a pill or capsule containing a tapeworm cyst or larva—typically from a beef tapeworm—was purposefully consumed. It was thought that the parasitic worm would develop inside the host’s digestive system and devour some of the food consumed, enabling the individual to eat anything they wanted and maintain or lose weight without the need for rigorous exercise or challenging dieting. The user was expected to take an anti-parasitic drug to get rid of the worm once the required weight loss was attained. However, because the tapeworms may grow to large lengths and cause fatal adverse effects, this method was dangerous.

11. Using Animal Organs to Treat Human Illness

The idea of utilizing animal parts to treat human illness dates back thousands of years, when it was thought that a sick person could benefit from the vitality or special qualities of an animal’s organ. One notable example is the extensive usage of fresh or powdered fox lungs during the Roman era, which was thought to be a remedy for lung conditions, including tuberculosis and asthma. In a similar vein, the bile, urine, or particular organs of different animals were recommended according to their alleged qualities or a superstitious connection to a human illness. Despite appearing nonsensical now, this antiquated medical method served as a model for contemporary organ transplants and glandular treatments. However, these early methods included applying or consuming raw or minimally processed animal materials, in contrast to contemporary, sterile cross-species treatments.

12. Using Opium for Infant and Child Soothing

Opium was a common element in many patent medications and home cures, sometimes given to infants and children, before the risks of addiction and overdose were clearly recognized. Godfrey’s Cordial and Paregoric, a tincture of opium, were the most well-known formulations used to treat colic, coughs, diarrhea, and quiet crying infants. Opium was a popular option for weary parents and caregivers since it was readily available and very effective at concealing symptoms and promoting sleep. Tragic outcomes, including unintentional overdoses, severe constipation, and long-term addiction in children, were frequently caused by the extensive, uncontrolled use of these opioid chemicals in pediatric treatment.

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