10 Historical Medical Cruelties Alive in Today’s World

December 10, 2024 History, Interesting, Shocking, Weird Leave a comment

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Modern hospitals sparkle with advanced machines and fancy degrees, yet certain treatments lurking in their corners might make a medieval barber-surgeon grin.

1. Maggot Therapy

Maggots eat dead flesh. That’s gross. It’s also very helpful when it comes to cleaning wounds, especially after surgery. So as long as the host is live, this technique is surprisingly sanitary. Just don’t let me see them please.

2. Stitches

Sewing is a well known ancient practice, so it makes sense that sewing wounds shut would be one as well. The earliest known stitches were found on a mummy from 1100 BC.

5. Transsphenoidal Techniques

You might think of brain surgery as a modern medical practice, and it is, but getting to the brain through the nose isn’t. Even the ancient Egyptians knew that the easiest path to the brain was through the nose… they just didn’t have the ability to use that information effectively.

6. Cow Bile

Ancient doctors loved experimenting with odd substances, often unsuccessfully. Shockingly however, cow bile kills MRSA very effectively when cooked with garlic. The substance is still used today.

7. C-Section

The modern cesarean section has greatly improved mother and infant mortality rates, but the procedure itself has been around since 320 BC. Back then however, it was only used in extreme circumstances, and was hardly an ideal option for any party involved.

8. Leech Therapy

Old medicine loves messing around with blood, but surprisingly, leech therapy actually helps promote blood flow and prevent clotting. Still, it was gross in 800 BC, and it’s gross now.

9. Waste Transplants

Ancient doctors loved messing around with feces, but it turns out transplants are effective at curing Clostridium difficile infection. Unfortunately, people of the past were left to perform the procedure without modern colonoscopy technology.

10. Trepanation

Drilling a hole in someone’s head to fix a headache sounds like an archaic practice, but it does help relieve pressure for patients who have experienced severe brain trauma. Ancient peoples might have been a bit too liberal with their applications however.

11. Cupping Therapy

Fairly recently, athletes have brought the practice of “cupping” back into the spotlight. But while the silly-looking purple welts on Michael Phelps’s back might not look familiar, they are actually part of a revival of a 3,500-year-old ancient Egyptian practice.

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