Cures No Longer Recommended by the Medical Profession

From the ancient Romans to modern times, we humans have been plagued with all sorts of medical problems.  Some cures that were found through the ages are still used today.  Of course, these were not….

During the Middle Ages it became fashionable to eat and to rub into the body, parts of ancient Egyptian mummies for medicinal purposes.  The remains of these mummies were believed to be an effective cure for a variety of ailments ranging from fractures and paralysis to migraines and ulcers.  Mummy trafficking became a rather lucrative and highly organized enterprise starting at the Egyptian tombs and followed a well planned trading route to Europe.  However, the bottom fell out of that market when it was discovered that dealers were selling “fake” mummies made from recently deceased slaves.

In ancient Rome, a physician named Pliny the Elder taught that human urine was an excellent remedy for dandruff, running sores, venereal disease, mad-dog bites and snake bites.

A wealthy nineteenth century politician and country squire named Jack Mytton of Halston, Shropshire, died at the age of thirty eight after being injured when he set fire to his own nightshirt in an attempt to cure his hiccups.  Before the horribly burned Mytton expired, he remarked “Well, the hiccups is gone, by God.”

The most popular cure for leprosy in the Middle Ages was to take a bath in the blood of a dog.  If a dog wasn’t available, the blood of a two year child would suffice.

The seventeenth century German surgeon Wilhelm Hidden recommended this postoperative balm to aid in healing and prevent infection.  the balm was made for powdered mummy, earthworms, iron oxide, pig brains and moss from the skulll of a man who had been hanged under the sign of Venus.  What was really bizarre is that the balm was to be applied to the surgeon’s knife instead of the patient

.Britain’s first prime minister, sir Robert Walpole, consumed a total of about 180 pounds of soap for several years trying to dissolve a stone thought to be in his bladder.

Early suggested cures for syphilis included having intercourse with a virgin, rubbing dung into the male organand bathing in horse urine.  The only known prevention for venereal disease was to wash the genitals in vinegar.

A nineteenth century contraceptive was to douche with lye to prevent pregnancy.  Unfortunately, this practice was responsible for countless injuries by chemically burning the genitals and in death.

Surprisingly,in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in America, cocaine and opium were used as an ingredient in various in various tonics and remedies for just about every medical condition.  Tragically, these tonics were responsible for widespread addictions and deaths.

Leaches were believed to be an effective cure for fevers, the plague plus a wide range of afflictions that befell a patient.  The leaches were thought to draw the “evil humors” that caused the illness.  Ironically, the leaches usually killed the patient due to loss of blood

The nineteenth century New York Physician Dr. Thomas Spencer tried to cure a case of cholera by plugging the patient’s anus with sealing wax.