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Medical treatments have come a long way. A really long way. It’s pretty obvious that with time and new technology, medicine has advanced in ways that we never knew were possible. Vaccines have eliminated illnesses that used to actually kill people, engineers have been able to create robotic limbs that work, and so on. Today’s doctors, researchers, and scientists have made groundbreaking discoveries. Before all of that, of course, there was a whole lot of trial and error. People had to use the natural world around them as materials for medical treatments. There’s no shortage of bizarre stories about what the doctors of the past thought would work. Some animal brains were thought to be curative, drugs that are now illegal were used generously, electricity was used to treat certain disorders … you name it. Are you interested in what kinds of outrageous medical treatments were used throughout history? Read below story. You’ll be thankful that you weren’t around when medicine was practiced like this. 1. Powder of Sympathy listverse.com Powder of Sympathy was created by Sir Kenelm Digby of the 17th century. The mixture was composed of rust, bits of mummified corpses, earthworms, and pigs’ brains. What was it used to cure? One very specific type of injury: rapier wounds. 2. Bloodletting National Geographic Bloodletting was extremely popular for a long time. Different ailments were treated this way, and people thought these ailments were due to having too much blood. It traces back to the idea that the four humors — blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile — needed to stay in balance. 3. Trepanation Wikipedia Trepanation has been around forever. It basically involved drilling holes in someone’s head, usually to treat migraines and seizures. As it turns out, trepanation didn’t do much to cure head or brain problems. Go figure. 4. Urine Diagnosis Modern medical analysis concerning urine has come a long way. Back in the day, doctors would only have their five senses to examine urine samples. This amounted to smelling, touching, and even tasting urine. Some people even bathed in it. 5. Farts in a Jar bloodfire.co.uk When the Black Death rose to prominence, an unlikely cure was created — farts in a jar. At the time, people thought the Black Death was caused by deadly vapors, so they believed in using “deadly vapors” to fight it. People were encouraged to take a whiff of the jar whenever the illness was near. 6. Hemiglossectomy In the 18th and 19th centuries, the way to cure a stutter was thought to be hemiglossectomy, or cutting off half of a person’s tongue. It didn’t work, of course, and many patients bled to death. However, hemiglossectomy is still used today to treat oral cancer. 7. Dead Mouse Paste Mice have had many medical uses throughout the years, tracing back to ancient Egyptians who would put a dead mouse — sometimes mashed with other ingredients — in their mouths to treat toothaches. In the same vein, in England people used to cut mice in half and apply them to warts. 8. Female Hysteria Cures CultureCollectiva.com Honestly, men and doctors really just didn’t know how to deal with women’s issues. Any minor issue a woman caused could’ve landed her a diagnosis of “hysteria,” which basically meant they didn’t do what men wanted them to. Naturally, the cure was to massage their lady parts. That’s actually how the vibrator was born. 9. Lobotomy ThePsychologist.bps.org.uk This one’s pretty famous, as modern movies and TV continue to include it. Lobotomies were used to cure pretty much any mental health issue there was. The operation consisted of sticking an ice pick into one’s eye socket in the hopes of getting to the brain, and then using a mallet to alter one’s brain. 10. Heroin Treatment PrescriptionDrugs.ProCon.org Bayer, the company behind our everyday aspirin, actually first developed heroin. In the late 19th century, before people knew what heroin could really do, it was used to suppress coughing. Heroin does, in fact, help coughs, but I’m not sure that’s the best method of dealing with it. 11. Children's Soothing Syrups DigitalCommonwealth.org Before we had better methods of disciplining children, soothing syrups were developed to deal with disobedient kids. They essentially were used to sedate or calm children, and they were full of all the right narcotics to get the job done. Supposedly, an ounce of one of these syrups contained 65 mg of pure morphine. 12. Moldy Bread Delish.com Moldy bread was used in many ancient cultures — in Greece, China, Egypt, and Serbia, among other countries — to heal open wounds and prevent infection. While this sounds unsanitary, we now know that some fungi do kill bacteria. I guess they weren’t so far off. 13. Vin Mariani VinePair.com Invented by Angelo Mariani, Vin Mariani was basically a red wine treated with coca leaves. It was meant to be a healing tonic, but as most know, the coca leaves contained cocaine. Doctors approved the drink for any man, woman, and child. 14. Electrical Impotence Treatment Flickr/indiamos Impotence has been a problem for men for ages. At one time, electricity was the preferred method of dealing with it. There were electrified beds and member-shocking electric belts on the market, advertised as having the capability of returning their “male power.” 15. Arsenic Vinography.com Your eyes aren’t deceiving you — arsenic, the poison, was thought to have medicinal applications as recently as the 1950s. Most of the time, it was an ingredient in more complex concoctions, most notably to treat malaria, syphilis, arthritis, and diabetes. Credits: standardnews.com Share this story on Facebook with your friends.