No one likes to be sick or suffering . But in the class of trying to come up new cures for medical problems , or perceived medical trouble , we ’ve stumble more than a few times . Most of the time , treatments only did n’t act upon and were no more harmful than what they were meant to “ heal . ” Sometimes , though , the medicinal drug was even bad than the term itself .
1. RAW MEAT AND HOG FAT FOR A RABIES BITE
To his credit entry , Pliny the Elderdiscountedmany purely sorcerous folk cures in hisNatural Histories(not to mention write total chapters against the eating of infant nous ) . He was also a proponent of several treatment which we now know to have some meritoriousness , such asaloe verato dress George Burns .
Still , his advice was often more confutative than credible . His therapeutic for bites from a sore ( rabid ) human being or dog were the same — tender veal or she - goat dung placed over the combat injury for no less than four Clarence Shepard Day Jr. , while the patient takes only basswood and hog ’s fatness internally . If this does n’t sound so uncollectible , imagine eating nothing but alkaliser and lard , while having an open injury get more and more infected . If you were n’t dead by the sentence the rabies actually demonstrate , you probably wish you were .
2. SMACKING A BIBLE ON A GANGLION CYST
Hit them with a al-Qur’an . A heavy book . The use of goods and services of Bibles to cure ganglion cysts provide the colloquial terminal figure for this benign oaf on the hand or wrist : Bible cyst , Gideon ’s disease , or Bible gibbosity .
Really , you should n’t do this , however . While in some circumstance the lump may disappear or be reabsorbed after being thwacked , this method acting of treatment is second only to puncture them in an unsterile environs when it come to causing recurrence and tortuousness . Most ganglion cysts cause no complications on their own , and many will disappear after a few months if bequeath alone [ PDF ] .
3. WHIPPING FOR “DRAPETOMANIA” OR “DYSAETHESIA AETHIOPICA”
Drapetomania and dysaethesia aethiopica were two different but related “ precondition ” that one Samuel Cartwright saw as prevalent among hard worker during the mid-19th century . Drapetomania supposedly caused an “ insanity ” that drive slaves to run away , while dysaethesia aethiopica do “ partial spiritlessness of the skin , ” and “ great hebetude ” ( genial bluntness and flatness ) .
To cure either precondition , you needed only to scald the patient role . The conception caught on in the South , as it lent an air of science and ego - justification to striver owners — Cartwright ’s worksuggested that the only moral thing to do was to keep slaves in their place for their own commodity , lest they become afflicted with one of these stipulation ( he observe how “ common ” dysaethesia aethiopica was among “ Free Negros ” ) . Of course , this quackery was not hard to blot by his contemporaries outdoors of the South . Frederick Douglass once sardonically remarked that , since white indenture servant run away , too , “ drapetomania ” was in all likelihood a European circumstance that had been introduced to Africans by white striver traders .
4. SMOKING FOR ASTHMA
fume a cigarette ! Not a tobacco cigarette ( though those were advertised as “ intelligent ” for 10 ) , but anherbal redress . While a few components of these cigarettes may have caused a degree of temporary easement for those with bronchitis or asthma , the long - term effects of smoke anything are known to be prejudicial , specially to those whose lung are already diseased .
Long - term effects aside , many of the “ asthma cigarettes ” contained ingredient that were immediately and seriously harmful . Several trade name boasted add arsenic to their papers . Two of the staple element for many fellowship were stramonium , an excerption from the deadly Jimson mourning band ( Datura stramonium ) plant , and belladonna , extracted from deathly nightshade ( Atropa Atropa belladonna ) .
5. HEROIN TO CURE A MORPHINE HABIT
“ Morphinism , ” or morphine dependency , was perceive to be such a pervasive use , and seen as such a flagellum in genteel club , thatquack curesand treatments were easy to convince people to try on , and seldom got reported or notice when they did n’t work .
While untagged letters patent medicine in the U.S. were forced to reveal their ingredients after the passage of the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act , many dangerous concoction were still sold and advertise falsely . The story of Bayer ’s Heroin being used to “ bring around ” morphia addiction ( with a much more addictive and graceful opiate ) is pretty well - make love , but it never caught on as much asHabitina(also know as Morphina - Cura ) did . Habitina became known for its pay testimonial and dodgy advertising claims ( “ Non - habit-forming ! Cures the morphine habit ! ” ) , and was one of the most significant examples of the shortcomings of the Pure Food and Drug Act .
Habitina not only did n’t give the patient a cure , it unite the bad sides of the pharmaceutical industriousness into one bottle — its main ingredients were morphia sulfate ( does it reckon as a cure if you call the same drug by a different name ? ) , diacetylmorphine , and caffeine .
6. RADIUM TO PREVENT INSANITY AND OLD AGE
“ The Radium Water Worked Fine Until His Jaw Came Off ” has to be one of the bestWall Street Journalheadlines of all time . The “ radium water ” in question was calledRadithor , and the jaw in question belonged to one Eben Byers : industrialist , socialite , and amateur golf champion .
Ra and radiation therapy wereall the ragearound the twist of the 20th C . People who went to natural hot springs seemed “ enliven and renewed , ” and scientist note that many of these natural bound were gamy in naturally - occurring radon . The Rn seemed to be to water what atomic number 8 was to air ; without it , weewee was “ deadened . ” Looking to profit off of this discovery , companies first bottled water directly from the springs , and later produced “ liven up ” crocks ( containing internal radon discs or coatings ) to irradiate water . Just fill the smut before you go to sleep , and have healthy , stir piddle all twenty-four hour period long !
Unfortunately for those who devour the radon , the radiation in the waterdid the oppositeof what it was theorize to do . Eben Byers bought into the claims , and drank three bottles of Radithor a day , begin in 1930 . In 1932 , his dentition began to fall out , holes start to seem in his jaw , and he became broadly unwell . He was die of aggressive Cancer the Crab bring on by the radon ( not radiation poisoning , as is commonly believe , but still at once attributable to the Radithor ) . He die at eld 51 and was inter in a lead - seamed casket . His was one of the character used to substantially increase the FDA ’s ability to baffle medical claims , when the 1938 Food , Drug , and Cosmetic Act passed .
7. GOAT GLANDS TO CURE IMPOTENCE
Some the great unwashed will do anything to get their “ strength ” back , and there are stack of mass out there who are willing to take advantage of that . John R. Brinkleywas one of the myriad snake - rock oil salesmen at the turn of the century , but a medical degree bought from a diploma John Stuart Mill led the now-“Dr . ” Brinkley to pursue grander matter .
too soon on in Brinkley ’s career , Bill Stittsworth , a farmer with “ no tether in his pencil , no gunpowder in his pistol ” consulted him . The story goesthat Brinkley jokingly remarked that it was too bad the husbandman did n’t have the secretory organ of the kittenish billy goats outside , but Stittsworth , train Brinkley in earnest , articulate “ Doctor , I want you to transplant [ the Capricorn secretor ] into me . ” The Dr. did as much , and nine months afterwards , Bill Stittsworth ’s married woman reportedly have a bun in the oven a son , appropriately named “ Billy . ”
Seeing the potential to profit from this speculation , John Brinkley set up a major ad crusade centered on “ Billy , ” and “ goat - gland transplantation ” take up off . Over 16,000 men had their scrotums turn off open and weave plugs from the goat testicles enclose . In the best - case scenario , the men ’s bodies simply broke down the goat tissues and healed up , but many patients were n’t so favorable .
The fact that Brinkley was a mediocre aesculapian mankind at best led to dozens of deaths that were straight off attributable to his operation , but hundreds more are think to have been kill by transmission , gangrene , or operative mishap . Those death also helped conduct to the revocation of Brinkley ’s license to exercise medicine in Kansas in 1930 . unluckily for the easy swayed , he remained in the goat - secretory organ business for another X in Texas .
8. THALIDOMIDE TO CURE MORNING SICKNESS AND SLEEPLESSNESS
The fifties were an era of founding , new discoveries , and excitement about the potentiality that science had to meliorate our biography . Drug society were thriving on this outlook , and developing cure for even the smallest of ailments . Sleeplessness was a major problem , according to contemporary Dr. , but the only honest sedatives were barbiturates , which had a innkeeper of roll in the hay addiction problems and side effects .
In 1957 , the German drug ship’s company Grunenthal developed a non - barbiturate , non - habit - forming sleep attention called Thalidomide . It was sell over the return , and touted as “ dependable for everyone . ” Grunenthal ’s adverts bluster that they could not find a dose high enough to kill a skunk . By 1960 , its sales in Europe and the Commonwealth countries nearly mate that of aspirin . Down in Australia , Dr. William McBride acknowledge that women who pick out the drug were often alleviated of their morning sickness , and sales boomed even high .
It was too just to be true . By 1961 , babies were beginning to be born to mothers who had shoot Thalidomide in early pregnancy . Many of them had shorten or absent “ flipper”limbs . Dr. McBride realized his misunderstanding , and did everything he could to retract his endorsements of the drug , but it was too tardy for over 12,000 babe . By 1961 , the drug was pull out off the market , but Grunenthal offered no recompense or statement regarding its inadequate examination and irresponsible promotion .
Interestingly , the tarradiddle of Thalidomide had a rather dissimilar turn in the United States . Though it technically passed the requisite of the FDA examination agency at the time , FDA inspector Frances Kelsey would not sanction its dispersion . Ms. Kelsey feel the society provided deficient data on the efficacy and safety of the drug on its applications , and despite pressure from pharmaceutical ship’s company and other FDA supervisors , she refused to budge on the issue . President John F. Kennedy eventually herald her as a heroine , after the malicious gossip of the “ Thalidomide child ” fall apart overseas .
This incident further strengthen the testing prerequisite of the FDA , and greatly increase the supervision and regulation of equivalent organizations in other country . Interestingly , Thalidomide is once again being used as a drug , albeit with extreme limitation on who can take it . It ’s a chemotherapeutic agent that has significant benefits for multiple myeloma patients , and it has also been used in the discourse of Hansen ’s disease ( leprosy ) . Patients on the drug must have maternity test and use reliable contraception if they are sexually combat-ready , and must not become significant within 4 calendar week of coming off the drug .
This story first go in 2013 .
