The next sentence you have to endure a boring check in a doctor ’s waiting room , be thankful you do n’t last in the early 20th C . Even as medicine was speedily meliorate , these downright scary or dangerous treatment were still mill around .
1. Radium Water
Before radioactivity was fully understand , of course occur Ra was lauded for its seemingly otherworldly benefits . piddle was kept in Ra - laced bucketful , and masses would wassail the corrupt liquidness to cure everything from arthritis to impotence . Of course , this was an horrific idea , and when people started to drop dead from this miracle water , the connection was made . Now , non - radioactive prescription drug are used to combat arthritis and impotence .
2. Ecraseur
This obsolete tool had a chain cringle that the doctor would tighten around a cyst or hemorrhoid . This chokepoint would rob the area of blood rate of flow , which would cause the offending clump to fall off . In modern aesculapian offices , cream are used to comfort hemorrhoids away , while more delicate surgical process is most often used to remove cysts .
3. Plombage
Plombage was a risky former 20th century intervention for TB in which a sawbones would create a cavity in a patient ’s lower lung and fill it with a foreign material such as lucite musket ball . This procedure would make the upper , infected lung collapse . The theory defend that a crack up lung would eventually mend itself . Thanks to modern vaccines , TB has been largely carry off throughout much of the developed world , although it is far from whole eliminated globally .
4. Peg Legs
Before the coming of advanced prosthetics , wooden pegs had to be impede into the hollowed - out cavities of an amputee ’s branch or strapped to the patient role ’s waist . The equipment would be shape and carved to the correct height , and occasionally the fit was perfect . Some recipients of the subroutine were able-bodied to walk for miles without notice uncomfortableness . Still , they were no equal for modern prostheses .
5. Gasoline to Cure Lice
In the former twentieth century , a patient role with a spoilt case of head lice would douse his or her dome with gasoline or coal oil in an endeavor to rid their scalp of the undesirable Edgar Guest . While this treatment may have been pretty effective , it was also incredibly life-threatening to anyone who walk near an open flame . modernistic medicament can solve the infestation much more safely with medicated shampoo .
6. Morphine for Teething
Any parent can empathise the requisite of comfort a teethe baby ’s painfulness , but even into the 20th century some moms and dads were taking incredibly speculative or downright grave step to aid their tots . In addition to lancing ( cutting the gum tree to give the fresh tooth a clear nerve tract to come out ) , parent gave child morphine sirup to ease their crying and dusted their gum with pulverisation that contained deadly atomic number 80 . advanced parent are luckier and can use non - toxic pain relievers or chill teething toys .
7. Mercury for Syphilis
For most of history , a syphilis diagnosing was incredibly gruesome news , and at the bend of the twentieth hundred , most Doctor of the Church ’ best discussion require administering toxic hydrargyrum to the patient indefinitely , giving upgrade to a pop quip about lover spending “ one night with Venus , a lifetime with Mercury . ” Even as medical noesis improved in the other 1900s , treatment still involved horrific measuring stick like taking arsenic or deliberately inoculating the patient with malaria , which would advance the body temperature and pop the lues . Thankfully , these shivery treatment all went out the window with the introduction of penicillin in 1943 .
8. Starvation Diets for Aneurysms
Doctors sought to treat early 20th one C aneurysms by diminishing the force with which the heart pump . One of the questionable regimens used to achieve this destination was known as Tuffnell ’s diet , which consisted of seam eternal sleep and meager , ironic rations . A 1901 aesculapian text spell out the treatment ’s daily computer menu : Two ounces of lolly and butter with two ounces of milk for breakfast , three ounces of meat and four ounces of Milk River or red wine for tiffin , and two ounce of dinero with two ounces of Milk River for dinner party . Today many fount can be treat with minimally invasive surgeries .
9. Hydroelectric Baths for Migraines
Taking the toaster into the bath may be fateful today , but for several decades starting in the late nineteenth C , some doctors commend treating continuing migraines by lounging in a hydroelectric bath – a warm tub with a small flow slip away through the water . Doctors finally became skeptical of this method , and today ’s migraine sufferers can deform to more efficacious pharmaceutic treatments .
