40 Outlandish Old Medical Treatments That Doctors Wouldn’t Dream Of Practicing Today
From chocolate-covered arsenic to radioactive tonics, medicine in the old days was definitely not for the faint-hearted. We’ve found 40 examples of just how wrong-headed and at times downright dangerous medical treatment once was. Read on to find out just how lucky we are to live in the era of modern medicine...
40. Dr. Schnee's four-cell bath
This woman is immersing her limbs in basins filled with water. That seems tame enough. But the fact that the apparatus next to her is running electricity through the water is hair-raising to say the least. This gizmo is an example of Dr. Schnee’s four-cell bath. Medics used it to treat rheumatism and aching joints.
39. Iron lung
This image was taken in 1940 at the Scots Mission Hospital in Tiberias, now in Israel. Assisted by Sister Lee, Dr. David Torrance ministers to a patient called Dow in what looks like an iron lung. These were used to help people with breathing difficulties. Doctors most commonly used this machine to treat those suffering from polio.
38. Macabre masks
In 17th-century Europe doctors dealing with plague victims wore truly bizarre outfits. According to National Geographic magazine, the large beaks were filled with concoctions made from herbs. The look was completed with leather gloves and ankle-length coats covered in perfumed wax. Sadly, these costumes would have given little or no protection from the bubonic plague, which actually infects humans via flea bites.
37. Flu epidemic treatment
Before the current Covid pandemic, the worst worldwide viral infection in the last century was the great flu epidemic. Known as the Spanish Flu, it struck in 1918 and by the time it had run its course an estimated 50 million were dead. The precise nature of the treatment this woman is receiving during the outbreak – and its effectiveness – is unknown.
